_{(DISCLAIMER: Note that this story will be incorporating some fanon abilities and characterization details for some of the characters. Generally the goal was to keep things in line with the three series while taking some creative liberties when appropriate, for the sake of an entertaining narrative. So please do not expect everything to be strictly 100% canon-compliant. Of course, it was still important to us that we stay in line with the characters as they are established. Basically, just have fun with it!)}

Chapter 3

“To Break the Wheel”

_{(Chapter art by Brobuscus)}

Earlier in the day…

The wind whistled in Konan’s ears as the open sea passed underneath at a breakneck pace. With wings spread wide, she glided effortlessly, barely moving them as the air carried her, though she occasionally flapped them to push herself upward. Although her paper had a faint flow of chakra coursing through it and was thus water repellant, it would still not do to stray too close to the water, in case of attack from below. 

Closing her eyes, she concentrated and cast out her senses. Not for the first time in her long flight, she wondered if she might be making a grave mistake.

Earlier that day, she had received a missive from a member of the southern Warlords, requesting a meeting within their stronghold – a meeting to discuss a temporary truce. On the face of it, the offer was incredibly suspicious, and under normal circumstances Konan would have burned the letter and thought nothing more of it… were it not for the comment at the bottom of the letter.

That had changed everything.

Even still, Konan would not have been an S-ranked kunoichi if she were the type to answer such a summons without taking the necessary precautions. As she soared across the sea toward the heart of enemy territory, she had sent forth a flock of origami birds ahead of herself, which had passed into enemy territory some time prior. As the sensory abilities of all those present in the arena had been stifled the last several days, Konan was confident that her scouts could evade detection, especially with the invisibility jutsu that she had placed upon them, in the form of a paper seal. Once they had arrived, she could use them as sensory beacons to funnel information back to her.

Of course, given the current interference with sensory abilities, this theoretically wouldn’t work, so the enemy would have no reason to be wary of it. As a sensor-type shinobi, however, Konan had spent the last several days dividing her time between tending to Nagato and testing out the exact limitations of the sensory deprivation, tirelessly devising workarounds. Ultimately, for as impressive as the range was to affect the entire gigantic arena, she had quickly come to the realization that its actual effects were rather rudimentary; whoever was causing it was almost certainly an amateur, or perhaps so careless that they assumed everyone else was an amateur.

Specialized sensory shinobi like Konan, so long as they possessed any appreciable level of skill, were capable of detecting and identifying chakra based on various attributes, ranging from the strength of the source, to the species of a user, their temperament, their bloodline, and numerous other differentiating traits. The dull miasma that had come to encompass the battlefield had essentially suppressed chakra’s basic ‘color,’ causing everything within a sensory radius to blend together and appear like a formless mass of static. However, by suppressing her attention to ‘color’ and focusing instead on other chakra attributes, Konan found herself able to easily work around this limitation, perceiving her surroundings with nearly as much clarity as she normally could.

On top of that, she had found that the color-muting effect only pertained to sensory information that was acquired via directly linking her own senses with her environment. If she had to guess, it was most likely interfering with said link by disrupting her soul or something esoteric of the sort, in a manner similar to radio interference. By linking up with chakra-receiving paper, like what her origami flock was made out of, she could use the receivers as an intermediary, absorbing sensory information into said receivers from their vicinity, copying that information, and then transmitting it back to herself. While this created a slight time delay compared to her normal senses, it bypassed the muting effect entirely. Though she could not be sure without testing, she suspected that any other sensory ability which functioned differently than normal energy sensing would similarly bypass the effect.

Thanks to her birds, she had successfully identified that the enemy’s fortress had been nearly deserted, save for two individuals. Only minutes ago, just after Konan’s bird had delivered her response to their invitation, a third person had arrived, and led one of the two away, down to the lower floors of the building until both of their chakra signatures had disappeared. With that in mind, only one individual currently resided in the building, and it was otherwise entirely defenseless.

Even so, as the island of Marineford loomed on the horizon, growing larger by the second, Konan could not quite squash her unease. She had no idea how strong this singular enemy was, after all. In the worst case scenario, she might very well die, if she were to land on the island carelessly.

Raising a hand, she extended two fingers to form a hand sign, and to her right a second Konan – made entirely of paper – materialized in a puff of smoke. A moment later, she had performed a second jutsu, and her own body shimmered and disappeared, camouflaging perfectly into her surroundings.

‘Better safe than sorry…’

Soaring ahead, the clone passed over the large circular bay at the front of the island, past the wall encircling it and up through the ramparts. Some distance behind her, the real Konan trailed, keeping her senses sharp in case her doppelganger triggered any traps or fell under attack. Though her birds had thoroughly scoped out the island beforehand, and had all escaped detection, there was no guarantee that a visible target would be as lucky.

However, the clone met no resistance, even as she cleared the steep wall encircling the bay, the tall execution platform shortly beyond, and ascended toward the top of the towering fortress at the island’s center. At last, she reached the top, and touched down behind the red fence that walled off the top level of the fortress.

As expected, the woman whom she had come to meet was waiting for her.

“Welcome to Marineford. I hope the journey was not too difficult.”

Boa Hancock’s tone did not match her words. As her giant snake shifted and coiled behind her, she regarded Konan with cold and imperious eyes. If she knew or suspected that it was not the real Konan, she didn’t show it.

“Not at all,” Konan replied, equally icy. She met Hancock’s gaze calmly, allowing no emotion to seep through. “Though I do hope it was not a waste of my time.”

“Likewise. If you would follow me, please.”

Without waiting for affirmation, Hancock turned to retreat into the fortress, and after a split second’s surprise, Konan followed her. A less perceptive person than Konan would have taken Hancock’s willingness to turn her back on her as carelessness, or perhaps arrogance, but already Konan had enough of a read on Hancock to tell that was not the case. It was confidence. Hancock was deliberately conveying to Konan that she believed – no, knew with certainty – that she had nothing to fear.

Unbothered, she fell into step behind Hancock. She’d seen her fair share of such intimidation tactics. It would take more than that to rattle her.

“I appreciate that you were amenable to my request for a meeting,” Hancock spoke again as she led Konan through the fortress’ winding hallways. “Disorganized conflict between our three factions will only lessen our chances of success.”

“That is not why I agreed to meet.”

Hancock was silent for a moment, as they reached a pair of double doors, which swung open easily to reveal a small room with a small meeting table at the center, one chair on each side.

“No, I suppose not.” As Hancock took her seat on one side of the table, she crossed her legs and leaned back in the chair, resting her chin on one hand. “Come, then. Sit. We have much to discuss.”

Konan was silent for a moment, and then moved to sit in the chair across from Hancock. The table was small, covered by a tablecloth, with a teapot sitting in the center and two cups. She couldn’t imagine this was where the Warlords held their meetings, perhaps some sort of personal quarters? The quaint atmosphere seemed as though it was intended to incite her to let her guard down.

That wouldn’t be happening.

As Konan sat, Hancock clapped her hands, and her snake moved to pick up the teapot in its large jaws, tilting its head to pour tea carefully into each cup. Hancock picked up her cup and took a sip. Konan remained still. Hancock pursed her lips slightly, but otherwise didn’t comment.

“Your ‘offer’.” Konan said, intent on getting right to the point. “It still stands?”

Sipping on her tea again, Hancock gazed down her nose at Konan.

“Why wouldn’t it?”

“I have very little reason to trust you.”

“If I wished to kill you, I could have done it by now.”

“I doubt that.”

“Hm.” Silence fell between them. After a moment, Konan spoke again.

“How did you know?”

“About what?”

“Don’t play dumb.”

Hancock took another sip of tea. 

“I suppose you could say that it was an educated guess.”

Konan didn’t allow her calm expression to falter, but felt a prickle of irritation at the notion.

“An educated guess… that a member of my team has fallen ill?”

Hancock tilted her head, her cold expression giving way to a thin smile.

“Your team has been by far the most cautious of the three. Our team, and the Espada to the east, encountered each other several times in the first few days, though avoided direct conflict until the third day. However, aside from those two patrolling through the sky on the bird, no one saw hide nor hair of your group that whole time.”

Konan didn’t reply. That reasoning seemed weak to her, as Hancock had no idea how cautious the Akatsuki normally were, and their relative invisibility could easily account for that discrepancy. To think that the Warlord had stumbled her way to the right answer with such-

“Now, this isn’t suspicious in and of itself.” Boa’s voice cut into her thoughts. “You Akatsuki could perhaps simply be more careful than the rest of us, or better at stealth thanks to your abilities.”

…Ah. Konan’s lips thinned slightly, and she forced herself to calm down and reassess. She couldn’t allow her own anxiety to warp her judgements so easily.

“However, I think it’s far more likely that one or more of you have fallen ill. After all… poison is one of my specialties.”

At this, Konan was unable to stop herself from freezing up slightly.

“…Poison…?”

“Indeed. More specifically, in this case, a strange energy in the air that seeps into the skin. Not normally dangerous, and wouldn’t even give someone healthy a runny nose, but this entire arena is practically humming with it.”

“…Why?”

Konan’s mind raced. ‘Someone healthy’… no doubt about it, Nagato was suffering due to his weakened immune system. But a mysterious energy… how had something like that escaped Konan’s detection? And more importantly, why would it be present? Their overseers seemed interested in seeing a good fight, after all. For what benefit would they poison their participants?

“It seems strange, doesn’t it?” Hancock agreed. “I thought so too, when I first detected it. But upon closer examination, it’s not at all what it sounds. Not even close. This energy is designed to make us stronger.”

‘…Huh?’

“Only someone who-”

BOOOOM!

The room shook violently, the teacups on the table upended. Salome recoiled sharply, eyes wide and fangs bared in alarm. Konan shot to her feet; across from her, Hancock did the same. Her aloof, relaxed demeanor had shifted, giving way to alertness.

“An attacker. Come!”

Another explosion rocked the building as she dashed from the room, Konan following hot on her heels. In what felt like moments, the two emerged back onto the balcony overlooking the island. Standing on the execution platform hundreds of meters below, Nnoitra Gilga’s screeching voice carried all the way to the top of the fortress.

“Come on, come on! Bring out that Mihawk bastard already! I’m itching for a good fight!”

His tongue lolled out of his mouth, a stylized number “5” stamped on it. With gleeful madness in his eyes, he let loose another Cero from the tip of his tongue, and it swept across the front of Marine Headquarters, scoring a long gash along its face that steamed violently.

From next to Konan, Boa appeared unperturbed.

“Feh. Such a nuisance…”

In a blur of movement, she leapt over the balcony. As she plummeted, she twisted in midair to keep herself stable. Salome, curled around her body, unfurled and stretched downward toward the ground far below, and as they impacted he compressed like a spring, blunting their impact with the ground and allowing Boa’s feet to touch down gently. Some distance away, Nnoitra leered. His hand twitched on the hilt of the massive crescent blade that he carried, but he made no move to attack.

“Where’s your master, girl?”

“I serve no master.” Boa regarded him with cold eyes. “You are not welcome here, Espada.”

“Oh? Is that so?” Nnoitra’s eyes shifted over Boa’s shoulder, as Konan touched down behind her, paper wings unfurled. He grinned. “No room for the Espada in your alliance? You little birds must be awfully scared of us, if you’re working together.”

He shrugged.

“Not my business, though. Come on now, bring out Mihawk. Chop chop. I’m the best the Espada has to offer. I won’t accept such…” His gaze shifted back and forth between Boa and Konan, almost lazily. “…meager women as opponents. You won’t even be a warm-up.”

“The best the Espada has to offer?” Boa angled her head backward, gazing down the bridge of her nose at Nnoitra. His cocky grin thinned minutely. “I hardly think so. If that were true, it would be rather embarrassing for you.”

“Hah?” Annoyance flickered across Nnoitra’s face. “Listen, whore-”

“I wasn’t done speaking.”

“!?”

Boa raised a long arm and pointed at Nnoitra imperiously as he glowered at her.

“Your strength is barely greater than that brute who killed Weevil. A far cry from what would be needed to challenge Mihawk. And my Observation Haki tells me you came alone.”

Behind her, Konan started.

‘Observation-?’

Immediately, she cast her senses out, and with a start she found that color had returned to the chakra in her vicinity. Having altered her sensory methods entirely, she hadn’t noticed that all of a sudden, the veil that had been placed on the arena had vanished.

‘How long has it been since that happened? Has she noticed…?!’

In a flash, her eyes snapped open. Panic flashed through her as sensory information flooded into her mind from the far northwest – the Rain Village that she had left unguarded. 

The Akatsuki fortress was under siege.

Pain was alone.

Her gaze met Nnoitra’s. He grinned at her.

‘No…!’

Without a word to Boa, Konan leapt into the air and spread her wings, shooting off like a bullet, past Nnoitra and toward Marineford’s Bay. She had made a grave mistake coming here.

Shink! Ripppppp!

She cried out and plummeted. Before she could get even halfway across the bay, Nnoitra’s blade had come hurtling toward her like a bullet, and the blades on each side of it pierced through both her paper wings at once. A moment later, Nnoitra had pulled the blade back by the chain, gouging giant holes out of the paper and sending Konan spiraling down to the water below.

Crash!

Carried by her own momentum, Konan impacted the water and bounced several times before managing to catch herself, channeling enough chakra into her hands and feet to suspend herself over the water’s surface. Gritting her teeth, she turned her gaze sharply toward Nnoitra, who grinned as he glanced back at her over his shoulder.

“Tsk, tsk. I didn’t say you could leave, girl.”

He turned his eyes back toward Boa.

“To fight a woman one-on-one would be an insult. Two? Hardly much better, but a fine enough warm-up. If Mihawk isn’t here, I’ll take you both on and bring your heads back to Grimmjow. And by the way?”

Hefting his giant weapon, he angled it toward Boa in challenge. Glancing back toward Konan again, he licked his lips.

“Don’t count on seeing your home again.”

—

Far to the northwest, the former top three Espada gazed up at the looming fortress before them, lightning crashing down around the tower that stood at the center of the Rain Village. As the unnatural rain poured down on their heads, their presence had not gone unnoticed by the man who ruled the village, and the violently roiling storm was a testament to that fact. Harribel’s eyes narrowed.

“Let’s go.”

In a flash, the three Espada vanished, their Sonído propelling them toward the fortress at breakneck pace. In one fluid motion, Harribel drew Tiburón, and allowed the rain around them to freeze in place. Her Pesquisa restored, she could tell that the liquid was infused with spiritual energy – no doubt some power of the man who ruled over this fortress. By her guess, it was most likely some sort of sensory power, to track the approach of any attackers via their contact with the rain.

However, as an Arrancar who commanded water, it was little trouble for Harribel. Effortlessly, she shifted the water all around, reducing its uniform movement to random chaos. To the Akatsuki’s leader, it would be impossible to tell the difference between a person’s movement and Harribel’s alterations. They would never know through which entrance the Espada made their invasion.

Within moments, the rainy exterior gave way to dark, enclosed tunnels as they passed through one of the exterior gates into the fortress’ interior. The three of them slowed down, their entrance successful. Next to Harribel, Starrk sniffed. Lilynette clung to his arm, looking rather dizzy from being carried at Starrk’s speed.

“Gloomy place, eh?”

“I doubt the enemy concerns themselves with the decor,” Baraggan grumbled, his good eye flickering around warily.

“Hey, just saying.”

Before Harribel could reply, the ground beneath her feet lurched and she staggered, unbalanced. Baraggan grunted and Lilynette shrieked.

“On guard!” Harribel cried, raising Tiburón in preparation to defend, but a moment later the hallway seemed to turn upside down, everything went black, and the Espada’s leader lost all sense of direction. 

Landing on her feet, Harribel’s gaze flashed around wildly, disoriented by the sudden darkness. It took a moment for her to adjust to the light, and when she did she saw that the hallway had seemingly completely shifted. Pipes lined the walls, dripping with water, and neither Starrk nor Baraggan were anywhere to be seen.

Casting out her senses, Harribel attempted to find their location, but was met with unexpected resistance. It appeared that the building’s walls acted as solid barriers that blocked out sensory information.

Her allies were beyond her perception. Harribel was alone.

Slowly, Harribel straightened up, though didn’t allow her grip on Tiburón to loosen as she started off down the hallway.

‘Another power of the enemy’s…’

If their foe had managed to separate them so quickly after their entrance, it seemed that her ploy with the rain had proven ineffective. Was it possible that the enemy had other sensory abilities on top of that one? It certainly seemed that they had some sort of control over the building’s corridors…

Harribel felt a flicker of unease, though not panic. If their enemy was intrinsically in-tune with the building, evading their detection might be impossible. On the other hand, given that they had seen fit to separate the Espada rather than crush them, it seemed their control over the interior was limited. Either way, even separated, it was three against one. They still had the advantage.

“Three against one, eh?”

Harribel’s eyes widened, and she whirled around, firing a Cero from her hand toward where the deep voice had come from. The beam of spiritual light ripped through the hallway, illuminating the walls with its radiance and disappearing into the far distance. There was no one there.

“Jumpy. Unbefitting of one who would call herself a leader.”

Harribel’s gaze flickered back and forth along the shadow-cast walls. 

‘He can read my mind…?’

“Show yourself.” She commanded. The enemy was trying to unnerve her. She wouldn’t let them.

“As you wish.”

From the shadows ahead, a figure seemed to melt into existence. Long, orange hair hung down around his face, six metal studs lined his jaw and cheeks, and a seventh pierced the bridge of his nose. His eyes gleamed a dull purple as he stared at her, expression devoid of emotion.

For the leader of the Akatsuki, he didn’t look very intimidating.

“Pain.” Harribel acknowledged.

“Oh? You know my name?” Pain’s eyebrows raised. 

Behind her face mask, Harribel kept her expression guarded. Szayel’s spirit-recording bugs and the intel that Nel had pried from Itachi flashed in her mind’s eye. 

“Your followers are less loyal than you may think.”

Pain scoffed. “I wouldn’t assume that you know what I think, if I were you.”

“Or that my followers know anything about me.”

Alarm shot through Harribel’s body like lightning, and she whirled around, Tiburón flashing like a blur. But even with the strength of the Espada’s leader behind the swing, her sword halted inches from the face of the man that stood behind her.

Harribel’s eyes widened slightly. For the man that she looked at, and the voice that had just spoken, were unmistakably Pain. His hair was shorter, and his studs lined his nose rather than the sides of his face, but the figure that had snuck up behind her had the same orange hair, the same ringed purple eyes, and the same dead gaze.

Her hand trembled as she struggled against an invisible force, straining to push Tiburón closer to Pain’s neck. But as though met with an invisible barrier, she couldn’t manage to press the sword any nearer to the man facing her. Pain closed his eyes.

“Truly feeble.”

His eyes opened again.

“Shinra Tensei.”

BOOM!

Instantly, with the force of a meteor, immense force impacted Harribel’s body, and pain flared through every inch of her. A split second later, she was hurled off her feet as a shockwave blasted down the hallway, carrying her backward with such momentum that her vision blurred and her ears popped.

WHAMMMM!

She slammed to a halt. The wall that her body had found cratered beneath her weight, and blood filled her mouth as her frame crackled with agony. As she crumpled to the ground, she reached up and ripped her collar away from her mouth, allowing the blood to spill freely before she could choke on it.

Her ears rang, and rubble rained down around her. Her vision blurred, and she shook her head to clear it.

‘What was that…?’

Already, she worried that she may have underestimated Pain. While Itachi hadn’t provided Nel with specific details on Pain’s abilities, and had said that the man was strong, Harribel knew that he had taken hours to slay Zommari, even with backup. While Zommari was far from weak, when compared to Harribel or even the majority of the Espada, he would have been easily dispatched in moments. An attack like the one that Pain had just used, strong enough to make Harribel bleed, would have killed the Séptima Espada instantly.

Harribel dragged herself to her feet. From the darkness of the hallway, Pain emerged… and behind him, the second Pain followed.

‘So that wasn’t a trick. There is more than one of him.’

“Impressive,” Pain spoke quietly, but his deep voice carried a sense of gravity. “Most foes would not have survived a point-blank Shinra Tensei. Of course, not impressive enough.”

Harribel took a deep breath, and then slowly exhaled. Allowing her immediate surprise to die down, she could evaluate her foe calmly and rationally. All things considered, there were three primary possibilities.

One, Pain had gotten stronger since his fight with Zommari. Two, Pain was holding back against Zommari and deliberately took a long time to defeat him, to give the illusion that he is weaker than in reality. Three, Pain’s power fluctuated in general based on unknown factors.

Mentally, Harribel discarded the second possibility. While it was entirely possible, it was the best case scenario. If true, all it meant was that her previous perception of Pain’s strength was an underestimation, in which case she could simply forget about her prior assumptions and fight normally. In the first or third scenario, things could become significantly more problematic. Both of them could imply that Pain was capable of getting stronger, and if that was the case then she needed to be more attentive than normal.

In her head, words echoed – her own words, a promise she had made to an ally just hours before.

“No one will die. I’ll make sure of it.”

She raised Tiburón, which she had thankfully managed to keep her grip on.

‘I’ll keep Pesquisa active at all times. Monitor his energy levels and be mindful of any changes. That way-’

“It won’t work,” Pain spoke up, cutting through her thoughts, and Harribel tensed. “Using your Pesquisa to read me, I mean. Recognizing a disadvantage and being able to deal with it… those are two entirely different things.”

Harribel was silent. ‘Can he really read my mind…?’

—

Elsewhere in the fortress, in the middle of a wider chamber, Baraggan Louisenbairn regarded the two figures standing before him.

‘How utterly beneath me… if this is the best that Pain has to offer, that fool of a leader hardly needed all three of us…’

Like Harribel, he had found himself faced with two separate Pains, similar in appearance yet distinctly different. Both were large and stocky, their bulky frames matching Baraggan’s own. One had orange hair that was tied in a short ponytail at the back, and each of his cheeks was marked with a spiked stud. The other was hairless and had a thick neck, spiked studs patterning its bald scalp.

Regardless, even the Pesquisa of an amateur could have discerned that their strength was nothing special. Baraggan was quite certain they wouldn’t even be able to touch him, let alone hurt him.

“Baraggan Louisenbairn,” the Preta Path acknowledged. “A former king now on a leash. It must irk you, to be trapped in chains.”

“Save the yapping for someone who cares, worm,” Baraggan growled, cracking his neck. “You’ll be dead before you can finish the thought.”

“I find that unlikely.”

Bam!

Faster than eyesight, Baraggan’s hand shot out and a Bala blasted forth. Twenty times faster than a Cero, it reached the Preta Path instantaneously, but the air in front of it seemed to warp, and as it impacted, the blast appeared to shrink and twist, vanishing into nothingness long before ever touching the Akatsuki’s leader.

Baraggan raised an eyebrow.

“Oh?”

The Pain on the right seized its cloak, and threw it off to reveal a metal body underneath. Subsequently, its flesh rippled and both its arms split into three. Its head soon followed, two more faces splitting off from the first, to face to either side. As its hands morphed into gun-like appendages, its body glowed faintly with mechanical energy. Unimpressed, Baraggan didn’t budge.

“Take your shot, whelp.”

The Preta and Asura Paths leapt into motion. Dashing around the edge of the chamber, they both circled Baraggan, who stood motionless, not even bothering to follow them with his eye. From behind him, the Asura Path thrust its hands forth, and concussive bursts of energy exploded from its palms, reaching Baraggan just as quickly as his own Bala. With an explosion, they impacted his back, and smoke billowed up, obscuring him. The Asura Path grinned mechanically.

Fwoosh! Arrogante cut through the smoke, and it cleared to reveal Baraggan unharmed within as he turned to face the Asura Path. Without even a speck of dust on his clothes, it was clear: the attack hadn’t even touched him.

“Feh.”

Flexing its arm, the Asura Path’s wrist split open as it continued to circle Baraggan, and a barrage of missiles ripped forth and blazed toward him. But as they approached the Segunda Espada, they strangely seemed to slow midair, and with a leisurely swing of Arrogante, Baraggan cleaved through all of them at once.

Rolling his shoulder, energy began to ooze from Baraggan, and the Pains quickened their pace.

“I’ll admit, I’m disappointed. I was hoping for at least a challenge. But it seems you lack the prescience to comprehend my ability. Of course, the same can be said of all the living.”

The Preta Path leapt forward, its hand outstretched as it tried to seize Baraggan by the throat, but it too slowed upon approach, halting a few inches from the king. With a scoff, Baraggan’s Reiatsu rippled from his body and blasted it away, sending it skidding back toward the edge of the chamber.

“If you had any rhyme or reason for pairing up the way that you did, you chose poorly with me,” Baraggan said. “You two will never touch me.”

Boom! Just as he finished his sentence, he involuntarily staggered as an energy blast impacted his shoulder.

‘What…!?’

The Asura Path grinned, and missiles exploded from its arms, raining down on Baraggan as he grunted and hardened his skin with Hierro. The blasts seared his skin and he gritted his teeth.

The Preta Path chuckled, the Reiatsu that had pushed it back sizzling around its body, as it twisted off its skin and vanished, absorbed by its ability.

“Your time dilation field is impressive, Espada. But it’s made of Reiryoku, and so I can absorb it.”

Baraggan’s eyes narrowed as he forced himself to his feet and with a snarl of effort, energy crackled from his body and the onslaught of missiles slowed to a halt. He glared.

“Insolent fool. I can just put up the field again.”

The Preta Path stared fearlessly back, raising its hands in challenge. Across the room, the Asura Path grinned.

“And I’ll tear down that defense again and again. Let’s see you learn what pain feels like, Hollow.”

—

“Kyahhhhhhh!”

Lilynette Gingerbuck’s shriek split the air as she dashed down an alleyway as fast as her tiny legs could take her. Oversized tears spilled from her eye as she ran, not daring to look back at the giant mass of flesh and fur chasing her.

As she leapt into the air, barely clearing a large pipe that blocked her way, the ground beneath her shattered, a giant paw striking where she had stood just a moment prior. She let out a wail of fear, and spun around, skidding to a halt and firing a bright green Cero from her forehead toward the gigantic dog monster that was hot on her tail. But as all her attacks had, it struck the creature’s flesh and dissipated harmlessly.

The dog howled and snarled, large purple eyes bulging violently as its jaws snapped at Lilynette’s feet and she scrambled away, sobbing.

‘No fair no fair no fair NO FAIR!!!’

Immediately upon being separated from Baraggan and Harribel, Lilynette and Starrk had found themselves split up as well, as this giant beast had descended on them. Lilynette had fled in panic without wasting a second, and the creature had followed hot on her tail. Soon enough, she found herself lost in the maze of buildings that they had ended up in, and had no idea where Starrk was.

Lilynette had been looking forward to finally getting a chance to fight, but had assumed she would be fighting alongside Starrk. She hadn’t signed up to get eaten!

Leaping into the thin gap between two buildings, she felt the dog’s jaws snap together just inches behind her, but thankfully its massive size and the narrow gap prevented it from following her. Sliding to her knees, Lilynette took in shuddering gasps as she desperately tried to catch her breath and calm her thundering heart. Several meters away, the dog snarled, trying in vain to force its massive head into the gap in the buildings.

“Are you lost, little girl?”

Lilynette practically jumped out of her skin and whirled around. Standing a short distance away from her, an orange-haired man gazed at her with heavy-lidded purple eyes. His face lined by a perpetual scowl and studs along his cheeks, the Naraka Path of Pain advanced on Lilynette with hands outstretched.

Tears in her eye, the small Arrancar glanced back and forth between the dog behind her and Pain in front of her. Every hair on her body stood up in abject terror.

‘Starrk… help me…!’

Several hundred meters away, Coyote Starrk had his own problems to worry about. Leaping across rooftop after rooftop, he barely managed to evade the impact of a giant bird, its beak like a drill. In front of him, a giant tail impacted, and Starrk skidded to a halt as the giant chameleon that it was attached to shimmered into existence. As he leapt into the air, a spray of foam coated the rooftop below him, a giant crustacean having fired it from a distance.

“O-Oi, isn’t this a bit much?” Starrk complained, scratching his head with a perturbed expression. He glanced down the row of buildings at one of the Paths of Pain in the distance – a girl with her hands clasped together. “Come on now, throwing a bunch of animals at me like this… someone could get hurt!”

The Animal Path didn’t reply, and Starrk’s frown deepened.

‘To separate me from Lilynette like this… how does he know so much about us?’

—

Some time prior…

‘Coyote Starrk… Baraggan Louisenbairn… Tier Harribel… The peerless one, so strong that none could bear his presence… The God-King who was toppled from his throne by a Shinigami… The Hollow who fought for peace that seemed eternally beyond her reach…’

Pain’s eyes opened. The Human Path removed its hand from the head of the man that lay dead before him. Thousands of years of memories and hatred swirled into his mind, ripped violently by the power of the Rinnegan from the corpse before him.

The corpse of Zommari Rureaux.

In the present, facing the leader of the Espada, the Deva Path of Pain did not smile, but when he spoke there was an unmistakable air of confidence in his voice.

“Tell me, Tier Harribel… do you truly believe that a mere three Espada are enough for me?”

—

To the south…

Nnoitra hurled his polearm, swinging it around by the chain in a wide arc. With a clang, it slammed into Boa’s Haki-clad foot, which rose to meet it with crackling electrical energy and deflected the strike. Leaping off the water’s surface, upon which he had created footholds out of Reishi, the Quinto Espada cackled wildly and lunged up toward where she stood looking down on him.

“Let’s see the inside of that pretty skull!”

He drew back his hand, hardened with Hierro, and thrust it forward. His sharp, bony fingers pointed forth like talons, readied to pierce straight through Boa. Without missing a beat, she thrust her palm forth, and Hierro met Haki with a horrible screeching sound, like metal scraping against stone.

The air between them swelled, and Nnoitra’s hand trembled, pushed back by the Haki that filled the space between Boa’s strike and his.

His grin faltered.

Bang!

Haki blasted forward, like a rubber band snapping, and impacted Nnoitra’s chest like a punch. His Hierro held, but he coughed as the wind was knocked out of him and he was hurled back through the air. In one fluid motion, Boa’s outstretched palm changed to a finger gun.

“Pistol Kiss!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Small heart-shaped finger bullets blasted from her index finger. Each one struck home across Nnoitra’s chest, blasting him further back across Marineford bay with every consecutive hit. He snarled in annoyance and swung his chain around. Santa Teresa spun like a propeller, deflecting additional shots, though their momentum continued to carry him backward.

Nnoitra’s eyes widened with a flash of awareness, and he twisted his body midair to dodge a projectile that blasted past him from below, missing so nearly that it tore the giant collar away from behind his head.

‘Grrrr!’

On the water below, Konan had formed several large paper bows in midair, each one loaded with dozens of thick, piercing paper spears. As Nnoitra registered the threat, another bow fired, and he hurled a Bala from his tongue, to blast the bolt from the air before it could reach him. His grin returned as he continued to swat Pistol Kiss shots out of the air.

‘Heh. Snake Bitch is too weak and Paper Bitch is too slow. If either of ‘em try to run, I can shoot ‘em down, no trouble. If this is the best they can do, I won’t even need to release!’

As soon as the thought passed, however, an attack slammed into his back and he let out a sound between a yelp and a grunt, unharmed but caught off guard, spinning over in midair. From the spot that he had been struck on the back, numerous confetti-like explosions blasted outward, peppering his back with searing bursts. From the side, Pistol Kiss shots snuck through his defenses and blew him head over heels, and he crashed down across the surface of the water.

Groaning, Nnoitra dragged himself up out of the water.

‘Ugh…! She used multiple bows as a decoy to draw my attention, and then called back the first shot that I dodged…’

He reached over his shoulder and ripped off the paper that had plastered itself to his back. Reiryoku rippled through his hand into the paper, and he crushed it into ashes.

‘Annoying cunt.’

His eyes narrowed. The attack hadn’t broken through his Hierro, but it had hurt. Hadn’t this hag struggled against Zommari just a few days ago? Nnoitra may have had an elevated opinion of his own abilities, but it was no exaggeration to say that there was no comparison between him and the Séptima, two full ranks below him. An opponent of his level should hardly be able to cause him pain at all.

Across from him, Boa leapt down to stand next to Konan. The two of them regarded him seriously, and in spite of himself he grinned. 

He had noticed it ever since he had first woken up in the arena. A strange energy in the air, like there was some unknown power lying just beneath the surface. It had taken time to realize what it was, but once he had realized it, it had consumed his every waking moment.

The arena was making them stronger.

Each and every one of them was growing far more rapidly than they would normally be capable of. Even without training, even without conscious recognition, everyone had improved in the days they had spent here. As though the very air itself was designed to draw out hidden potential within them. Upon realizing that, Nnoitra had thrown himself into training, biding his time as his power swelled. And yet this woman, who had started out far weaker than him…

‘So she’s gotten that much stronger in just a few days. Interesting.’

He twirled Santa Teresa around by the chain, caught it, and angled it down toward his opponents.

‘I’ll just have to grow even faster, then!’

—

The Naraka Path lunged, and Lilynette dove under his arm, sprinting past him. Whirling around, she raised a hand to the severed horn on her head, and from its hole she conjured a large, curved sword.

“Alright, you wanna fight? Haaaaaaaaaaa!”

With a battle cry, she charged and leapt into the air, bringing her sword down toward Pain’s head. Raising an arm, he caught the sword on his bare forearm, and it glanced off, leaving not even a cut behind.

“?!”

Lilynette’s eye widened in shock, and then an angry tick appeared on her forehead.

“Don’t take me lightly, jerk!”

Frantically she swung the sword down again and again, each blow glancing off Pain’s hands or arms without inflicting damage. Unamused, his hand lunged forward toward her throat.

“Eek!” Lilynette ducked, a tiny burst of Sonído propelling her below Pain’s hand, which seized only air. As he lunged again, she dove between his legs and leapt up behind him, swinging a kick into the back of his head, causing him to grunt lightly.

“Hold still,” Pain commanded, looking mildly annoyed. “It won’t hurt a bit.”

“That’s just what you’d say if it would hurt, weirdo!”

A green Cero charged from Lilynette’s eye and blasted out, but with a slight lean to the side, it shot right past Pain without hitting him. His scowl deepened. With a burst of speed, his hand finally found its mark, closing around the small Hollow’s throat.

“Enough of this.”

Behind him, in a flare of bright magenta fire, the King of Hell materialized.

“Now, little girl,” he commanded, eyes narrowing. “I have a question for you.”

—

With a mighty swing of Arrogante, the flat of Baraggan’s axe struck the oncoming rocket fist that the Asura Path had fired his way, deflecting it back. In an instant, the fist reattached itself, and the Path leapt into the air. From behind it, the Preta Path lunged in and seized Baraggan’s field, sucking it into its palms.

Grabbing the Preta Path by the head with his bare hand, Baraggan lifted it bodily into the air and threw it away from himself, but the damage had been done. As the Asura Path descended from above, its fists struck home, hammering against Baraggan’s now-exposed body. In spite of his exceptional Reiatsu, Pain was strong, and Baraggan gritted his teeth as he exchanged blows with the Path.

“I… will… not… yield!”

Seizing the shaft of Arrogante with four of its six hands, the Asura Path grinned. From its two remaining hands and the crown of its head, energy began to shine brightly. Baraggan’s eye narrowed.

“Give it your best shot.”

With an immense flash of light, the wide room was consumed, and a giant laser engulfed Baraggan.

BOOOOOOM!

As the light dimmed, rubble rained down. Behind the Asura Path, the Preta Path landed, both facing toward where Baraggan had stood moments prior.

Some distance away, the Hollow King pushed himself to his feet using Arrogante. The formerly scarred half of his face was unrecognizable, melted away by the blast to reveal his charred, necrotic skull underneath. In spite of that, he looked no less alive and murderous than he had moments before.

“I profess myself disappointed.”

Poof!

The Preta Path dematerialized in a cloud of smoke. In its place, the Human Path now stood. Baraggan’s eye widened slightly.

‘What? It switched out? Why? Did Pain set that up ahead of time…?’

His eye narrowed.

‘If he did, he miscalculated. He needed that other one to keep my field down. This one…’

The Human Path lunged in and seized Baraggan’s head.

A moment’s pause. Nothing happened. 

If Baraggan had been the type to grin, he would have done it there.

‘This one is weak.’

He reached out and seized the Human Path, allowing his power to flow into it. In an instant, the bones in its body crunched inward, left so brittle by senescence that they broke under their own weight. Another instant later, and a Cero fired from his hand, engulfing the Path’s top half and blasting it into vapor.

As the Human Path’s lower half toppled over backward, Baraggan’s gaze found the Asura Path, which for once seemed to have lost its smile.

—

Poof!

In a puff of smoke, the Human Path vanished, and in its place the Preta Path materialized. To its left, the Deva Path didn’t even twitch, but across from them Harribel tensed in alarm.

‘Switching out bodies…?’

As they had continued their battle, the Human Path had remained in the background, allowing the Deva Path to engage her directly while it observed from a distance. This had been something that she was thankful for; the Deva Path’s power was turning out to be incredibly difficult to deal with, even in and of itself. A nearly impenetrable defense combined with an unblockable offense… truly terrifying, indeed.

Until now, her guess had been that the other Pain was waiting for an opening, or for some sort of criteria to be met so that it could use its ability. Now, however, she was forced to rethink that judgement.

‘Was the other Pain fulfilling some sort of function that he didn’t need anymore? If so, what? And how did he switch it out? Was it automatic, or consciously triggered?’

Across from her, Pain’s eyes narrowed. In truth, his attention wasn’t on Harribel at all right now.

‘So, it’s just as I thought. Baraggan’s power is more limited than Zommari realized.’

Verbally, he said, “Apologies for the reshuffle. Pain comes in many forms.”

Without a word of response, Harribel raised Tiburón up to eye level and angled its tip toward the Deva Path.

“Ola Azul!”

A blast of amber energy exploded out, but as it approached Pain-

“Shinra Tensei.”

A shockwave exploded from Pain’s body, and the attack warped and then split apart into sparks, dispelled by the force of gravity emitting from the Akatsuki’s leader. As the smoke cleared around Pain, however, Harribel materialized in the air behind him, her Sonído carrying her at speeds that could fool even his Rinnegan. Swinging Tiburón around, she aimed to cleave straight through his neck.

And Pain ducked. It was an unnatural movement; without even turning to look, he jerked downward and Harribel’s strike sliced only through air.

‘?!’

Harribel found herself momentarily unbalanced, but as she moved to recover from the unexpected momentum, the Preta Path seemed to materialize in front of her, and slammed his fist down into her. Barely managing to parry with Tiburón, Harribel was knocked backward out of the air and skidded along the ground. The Preta Path landed, and the Deva Path straightened up next to it.

“Hmph.”

Harribel regarded both of them carefully.

‘That second Pain… he was watching me, when the first one dodged. On top of that, he was confident enough to switch out his Pains, even though he presumably has other bodies fighting Baraggan and Starrk. Which means either he has a large reserve of interchangeable bodies that he can swap in and out without concern, or the different bodies have some means of communicating information to each other. But based on that unnatural dodge just now, most likely…’

“Your bodies share vision with each other,” she guessed. “Anything one sees, the others see too.”

Pain looked unperturbed.

“That’s correct.”

Harribel didn’t smile, but she raised Tiburón toward the ceiling with an unmistakable air of triumph.

“Then I need only overwhelm both of you at once. Cascada!”

Water exploded from Tiburón’s tip and converged into a massive wave, and as she brought it down, it exploded forth, flooding the hallway and surging toward Pain like a condensed tidal wave. Immediately, however, the Preta Path leapt forward with its hands outstretched, and caught the giant deluge of water – no, absorbed it. The water flowed inward, as if vacuumed into the Path’s hands, until every last drop of liquid had gone from the hallway.

Harribel’s eyes widened.

‘Water absorption…?!’

The Deva Path’s lips curled upward into a thin smile.

‘So I can absorb her attacks after all. Meaning they utilize Reiryoku. …Excellent.’

—

“Are there more Espada coming to aid your invasion?” The Naraka Path growled out, Lilynette trembling in his grip but paralyzed in place. “Tell me now.”

“I… dunno.” Lilynette managed. “They didn’t tell me the plan.”

“I see… then you shall be put to judgement.”

Lilynette opened her mouth to respond, and then gagged, her eye going wide and her throat bulging, before an enormous pink mass was pulled from her mouth – her tongue, stretching out to great length. As it moved over the Naraka Path’s shoulders toward the enormous King of Hell behind him, large veiny hands stretched out from the King’s mouth to grip the tongue.

A moment passed. Then another. And then the King of Hell released the tongue from its grip, and it retracted back into Lilynette’s mouth, and then she slumped in Pain’s grip, eyelid drooping with sudden exhaustion. Pain frowned, annoyed.

“Hmph. It seems you were telling the truth.”

He paused, appraising the barely-conscious girl in his grip, contemplating his next question.

“Does it not bother you, to be left out?”

“…E…Eh…?”

“The bitter loneliness that split you in two. To be treated like you’re dispensable, brought into a battle you lack the strength to fight… surely, you must resent it so.”

“…Not really…”

“No…?”

“I’ve never felt lonely… I have Starrk, after all… and that’s good enough for me. Besides, like I said…”

Green light pulsed from her left eye, and her exhausted expression evaporated, replaced by an impish grin as though it had never been there. Pain’s eyes widened.

‘Impossible…! She should be paralyzed-!’

“You shouldn’t take me lightly!”

A Cero exploded out, much stronger than the one she had used previously. With no time to react, the Naraka Path was struck across the face point-blank, and the left side of its head was carved away in a blast of light and blood. Its grip loosened on Lilynette’s neck, and it toppled over backward, a shocked expression on what was left of its face as Lilynette fell, landing on her feet as Pain hit the ground.

Dusting herself off, Lilynette leered down at the Naraka Path’s corpse, her grin having widened so far that it seemed to stretch ear-to-ear. As she turned to leave, she paused, and glanced back at the prone Pain.

“Oh, and by the way? I was lying. Your power just wasn’t very strong, loser.”

Without another word, she whirled around and dashed off. It was time to find Starrk and stop messing around.

—

The Deva Path’s eye twitched, almost imperceptibly.

‘Two Paths destroyed… but that’s fine. The more that fall, the easier things will become for me.’

Across from him, Harribel straightened up. Raising a hand, she unclasped her jacket with the other hand to reveal the “3” tattooed underneath.

“If you can absorb my attacks, then I’m afraid I cannot afford to keep holding back.”

“Then show me your true power, already,” Pain replied coldly. “I, too, grow bored of this.”

Harribel raised Tiburón, the blade pointed downward.

“Hm. Very well then.”

Across the fortress, Baraggan swatted away another wave of the Asura Path’s missiles and huffed. He spun Arrogante over in his hand, so that the bladed end was pointed toward the ground.

“Enough of this.”

Elsewhere still, Starrk stood alone. All around him, the Animal Path’s summons lay strewn about the rooftops, twitching and unmistakably dead – while Starrk himself remained unharmed.

“Good grief,” he groaned, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. “I told you someone could get hurt if you sent your pets after me… I’m not so good at keeping my Reiatsu in check.”

Beside him, Lilynette touched down, grinning hands clasped behind her back.

“Ready, Starrk?” She chirped.

“Yeah,” he placed his hand on her head. “Let’s do it.”

Despite being far separated, the three Espada spoke as one.

“Give Chase.”

“Rot.”

“Hunt.”

—

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Nnoitra leapt across the surface of the water, allowing his Sonído to carry him at sufficient speed to evade the attacks that impacted around him – but even with his enhanced speed, he was having difficulty getting clear of them. He had thought that this fight would be easy, a simple warm-up to prepare him for when Mihawk returned home, but it was turning into a much more irksome endeavor.

From the far side of Marineford bay, giant battleships hurled shots into the air, which descended upon him from above. If they were normal battleships, their shots would never have been fast or deadly enough to pose a threat to him, but these ships – and more importantly, their munition – were special, forged from paper that Konan had conjured. The shells themselves were a mache of countless paper bombs, compressed together into a size that was in no way representative of their mass. Nnoitra had underestimated their strength at first, but upon being struck had quickly realized that they were small so that their concussive force would be inflicted upon the smallest surface area possible.

Annoying bimbo. 

If that wasn’t enough, he also had to concern himself with Boa Hancock’s arrows. He had been fortunate enough to dodge the first shots she had fired, and thus was able to see as they impacted the water that they were capable of turning their target to stone. It was possible that his Reiatsu would be able to suppress the effect, if needed, but the attack was far too dangerous for him to risk it. Altogether leading to a pincer attack that had him running himself ragged around the bay, dodging attacks from two sources at once.

Annoying sluts.

Did it occur to Nnoitra that he might have been foolish to challenge two opponents at once, without being aware of their abilities beforehand? Of course not. There was no way that two women could possibly beat him. They were just annoying, that was all.

They were annoying, and they would not get OFF. HIS. ASS.

With a bellow, Nnoitra hurled a Cero from his mouth toward Marineford. If he threatened the building, maybe the attacks would slow down for a second. But with a sweeping pirouette, pink energy flowed from Boa’s hands and formed into a gigantic pink heart in the air above her.

Nnoitra only had a moment to gnash his teeth and think ‘The hell is this pretty pretty princess bullshit-?’, and then…

“Mero Mero Mirror!”

As the Cero struck the heart, its center pressed inward like a gigantic trampoline, before snapping outward and hurling the blast back at Nnoitra. However, with a snarl, he swung Santa Teresa like a baseball bat and swatted the attack aside. Something behind him exploded as it landed.

“You’re gonna need more than that!”

He hurled Santa Teresa and swung it around by the chain, spinning in place to whip it around toward the paper battleships as they advanced on him. It struck each of them one at a time, carving through the paper that made up their bows. As a hole opened in each of them, water flowed in and the ships began to sink into the bay.

Twisting around and pulling on the chain, Nnoitra whipped Santa Teresa up over his head, swinging it up in a wide arc and then down toward where Boa stood. In a flash, however, Konan had flown in to intercept, and Santa Teresa slammed to a halt against the side of a long, paper sword.

As his attack was deflected, Nnoitra pulled the chain back, recalling the weapon to his hand. As he caught it, Konan swooped down and swung the sword, slamming it down into his chest with a loud CLANG!

Even still, Nnoitra’s skin held firm. He grinned.

“Too hard for ya, bint? You’re really not gonna like what comes later, then.”

SKREEEEEECH!

Nnoitra yowled, mostly in surprise, as the paper’s edge sheared down across his chest where it had struck him, and with a sweep of the blade Konan sent him staggering backward. The edge of the sword had suddenly begun to vibrate intensely and twist around the blade’s outer edge, like a makeshift chainsaw.

As Nnoitra went down to one knee, he hissed, seething softly as he brought his hand up to his chest. When he pulled it away, it was covered in crimson.

“What was that you were saying, pig?” Konan spoke softly, nothing but cold superiority in her voice.

Nnoitra’s blood boiled.

“You… You…”

Slowly, his hands unclenched. His lips curled upward into a grin.

“Heh…hehehe…HEHEHEHEHEHEHE…”

He lurched up to full height, staggering slightly.

“DON’T YOU LOOK DOWN ON ME! I hope you aren’t satisfied with that meager cut, you used-up tart!”

Raising Santa Teresa to the sky, he screamed the next word words at the top of his lungs.

“PRAY… SANTA TERESA!”

—

The Hidden Rain Village trembled violently. Enormous waves stirred into a frenzy throughout the surrounding water, and the sky above seemed to shake with equal intensity, rain pouring down and lightning splitting the air. The buildings, which had previously held up remarkably well under assault from incredibly powerful beings, strained under the force of the aura that erupted in three different places.

The shine of bright Reiatsu gleamed against the violet rings of four sets of Rinnegan eyes, as each of the four remaining Paths of Pain gazed impassively upon their newly-empowered foes. At the heart of the village, hidden away in the main tower, the painfully thin man commanding Pain twitched slightly as he increased the chakra volume he was transmitting.

It was showtime.

As the Animal Path’s giant dog charged toward him, Starrk was the one who moved first. Raising one of the two guns he now held, and fired a concentrated beam of spiritual light directly through the dog’s head.

The creature howled, but rather than die, it split off into two dogs, each just as large as the beast had been originally. Starrk raised an eyebrow.

“Cute.”

In a blur, his arm moved, and a thousand shots filled the air in front of him instantly. The leftmost dog was engulfed, every single shot striking home simultaneously, and eradicating every bit of its massive body. As the other dog dove at him with a snarl, its jaws snapping at him, Starrk seemed to vanish, and its teeth closed on nothing but air.

Flipping into the air above the dog’s head until he hung upside down, the Primera Espada aimed both his guns downward, and two-thousand Ceros eradicated what remained of the creature. In the distance, the Animal Path grimaced.

‘I’ll need something faster-’

However, as the Path began to form hand seals, Starrk swung a pistol around mid-flip and pulled the trigger. Instantly, a Cero blew a hole clean through the Animal Path’s head. An instant later, a dozen more shots followed, riddling the corpse with holes.

As the Animal Path dropped like a sack of potatoes, Starrk righted himself midair and landed on his feet. Twirling his guns, he cracked his neck.

“Bit on the rusty side, but not bad.”

“Rusty?!” Lilynette’s telepathic voice whined in his head. “We’ve totally still got it!”

“Hush. That Pain definitely wasn’t anything special, compared to the ones the others are fighting.”

Now that he had released his Resurrección, Starrk’s Pesquisa had been amplified enough to penetrate the dampening effect on the building’s walls, and he found himself able to locate Harribel and Baraggan with perfect clarity.

Lilynette huffed.

“They’re still taking us lightly, giving us the weak ones.”

“Whatever the case, we gotta move. We’re too close to Baraggan, and no one wants to be too close to Baraggan when he does his thing.”

“Booooo! Lame!”

Starrk sighed.

—

The Segunda Espada in question had transformed entirely upon releasing. His flesh had burned away to reveal the skeletal form beneath, adorned with a billowing black and purple cloak and a golden crown that had once signified his seat atop Hueco Mundo’s throne.

With a malevolent chuckle, Baraggan raised his newly-transformed axe.

“Respira!” Baraggan rasped. From both the weapon and his body, a dark purple miasma rippled out, consuming everything in its path. Across from him, the Asura Path turned on its heel and ran. Without the Preta Path to absorb the Respira, or the Animal Path to perform another reverse-summon, it had no other way to escape the attack except on foot.

As it fled, the Asura Path extended its hand backward and fired a volley of missiles, but the Respira pulse didn’t even slow down, eating through the metal and turning it to dust in an instant. The Asura Path’s head rotated on its neck, and a glowing laser fired from its mouth.

Piercing through the Respira, it struck Baraggan across the shoulder, and he cried out, staggering slightly. The Asura Path’s grin widened. Another laser shot from its mouth as it continued to flee, and then another and another, and Baraggan fell behind as he raised Gran Caída to deflect them.

Pain had learned of Respira by extracting memories from the dead Zommari’s mind with the Rinnegan, and had further determined the attack’s capabilities by reading Baraggan’s mind with the Human Path. It was this which had allowed him to deduce a weakness of the ability.

Respira was an all-encompassing and unblockable attack that aged anything it touched into nothingness, both physical matter and energy alike. Even a Kido spell that could last a thousand years would be eradicated, for a thousand years was not eternity. On top of that, the aura also acted as a field around Baraggan’s body, to slow down incoming attacks and age them to dust.

That said, for as inviolable as the ability seemed, it wasn’t flawless. It was all Reiryoku-based and so could be absorbed, and powerful enough attacks could pierce through its defenses. It also didn’t prevent attacks from being spawned or teleported inside his body, and the expansion speed of the miasma was limited.

However, Pain had quickly surmised a much easier solution to the ability: light. As light always moved at one constant speed, it could not be slowed down, and as it lasts forever it could not be aged out of existence either. He also suspected that other effects which could last for eternity would be equally effective, but he would have needed to call in someone like Itachi for that.

Unfortunately, the trade-off was that the Asura Path’s lasers were too weak. Even as shot after shot chipped away at the Hollow King’s bones, they did little more than take tiny chunks out of his sturdy skeleton. A crack here, a burn mark there.

‘Perhaps if I had an eternity to chip away at him…’ Pain mused to himself dryly. No, the lasers would keep Baraggan on the defensive, but they wouldn’t be a good method for killing him. That said, as long as they could occupy Baraggan’s attention, they would ensure that his Respira aura would expand more slowly than if he were consciously directing it.

Baraggan snarled, and swept several laser beams out of the way at once with Gran Caída.

“Enough games!” he shouted, and swooped forward after the Asura Path, his Respira surging forward with him as he gave chase. He could sense that they were moving toward Harribel and the two remaining Paths. Pain was trying to consolidate his power.

Suddenly, however, the Asura Path skidded to a halt, surprise registering on its face. Baraggan only felt a flash of confusion for a moment, before the reason made itself quickly apparent. From the tunnel ahead, an enormous wall of water exploded out, and in an instant the entire room filled with seawater.

—

FWOOOOSH!

Water exploded out of every side of the Akatsuki fortress, the entire area flooded massively beyond capacity. Gushing out, it swept down the alleyways of the Rain Village, carrying all the way down to the water that surrounded the city’s edge. 

From the water, a shadow appeared, and a moment later Harribel shot up out of the surface, launching into the air like a bullet, before landing atop one of the tall buildings that made up the hodgepodge city.

On the building across from her, the Deva Path stood, having fled the structure as soon as she had moved to flood it. The Preta and Asura Paths were nowhere to be seen – and based on what her senses told her, it seemed that they had both been destroyed by the massive attack.

That struck her as odd.

The Asura Path’s abilities were outside of her knowledge, but the Preta Path had been able to absorb her water. Were there limits to the Path’s absorption ability? Or had it deliberately allowed itself to die? 

As soon as it occurred to her, she realized that the latter seemed more likely. Harribel had been paying attention to Pain’s strength with her Pesquisa, and she had noticed that each time another Pain body had died in a distant battle, the strength of the others seemed to spike, as though spreading his focus between different bodies lessened his efficacy. 

Now, the Deva Path stood before her, far stronger than any Pain had been throughout the battle until now. Still, it seemed a risky trade-off to sacrifice a power as useful as absorption… 

To her left, Starrk seemed to materialize, his Sonído as impressive as ever. To her right, Baraggan touched down, his spectral visage floating slightly above the rooftop.

“Three against one, Pain,” Harribel spoke calmly. “You’re going to lose this fight.”

Pain tilted his head.

“I think not.”

A beat. And then Starrk and Baraggan both vanished.

“?!”

Alarm flared through Harribel, and her head whipped around. Pain hadn’t repelled either of them; it was as though they had been instantly teleported away – an ability that the Six Paths of Pain had thus far shown no sign of.

In an instant, however, Harribel’s Pesquisa flared, and she leapt into the air as black fire exploded beneath her feet. Across from her, the figure who had conjured the flame landed beside Pain, red eyes gleaming even through the torrential downpour of rain overhead.

Itachi Uchiha had arrived.

Harribel raised the transformed Tiburón, prepared to bring water down on Itachi’s head, but even as she did so she felt confused. Teleportation was not Itachi’s power either, so how-

“K-Room! Incision Wille!”

Her eyes widened as the air ionized around her, and spinning around in midair she barely managed to parry the oncoming sword slash, which cleaved along her blade length-wise. Descending from above, Trafalgar Law dropped in – accompanying Itachi, it seemed.

As Harribel was knocked through the air across to a distant roof, Law landed beside Itachi, and the two stood side-by-side in front of Pain.

“Show-off,” Law said. “I woulda had her, if you hadn’t tipped her off with your fire.”

“Hmph,” Itachi responded. “You were the one who wasn’t hiding your presence.”

“Who are you?” Pain interjected, staring at Law intently. “Explain yourself, Itachi.”

“Your girl sent me to help with your invasion,” Law lied before Itachi could respond, the practiced excuse that Mihawk had given him coming easily. “The one you sent to our fortress to strike a truce.”

Pain was silent, and Law winced internally. He got the sense that Konan may not have informed Pain of the meeting. Law himself knew very little of it, beyond what Mihawk had quickly told him, so any follow-up questions from the Akatsuki’s leader would quickly unravel the story. However…

“Very well,” Pain responded finally. “Go deal with the other two, and leave Harribel to me.”

With a curt nod, Law vanished into thin air, and Itachi disappeared alongside him. Pain pursed his lips.

‘If Konan truly went to broker a truce and learned of an attack back here, she would have rushed back herself, rather than send a Warlord.’ he thought to himself. ‘But I haven’t heard an announcement, so she isn’t dead. And he arrived with Itachi… hmmmm…’

—

Some time prior…

Space crackling around him, Law blinked in and out of existence, the shimmering water below materializing into vision for a split second each time before his Room vaulted him forward another hundred meters. It wasn’t as comfortable or convenient as flight, but it was a good way to get himself across large distances quickly.

For a moment, as he crossed the lower border of Akatsuki territory, the ocean giving way to sand below him, he felt a brief spasm of pain through his body and his Room flickered. Lurching slightly forward in the air, he began to fall, but a moment later he caught himself, his Room reappeared and he warped forward once again.

Suppressing a groan and slight nausea, he reached up and rubbed his eyes. His body throbbed with the mental and physical exhaustion that came from going days without sleep and then fighting Luppi just after. If he had his way, he would be collapsing into bed by now, but Mihawk seemed thoroughly convinced that aiding the Akatsuki in defending their fortress was of too great importance to ignore. With his Haki boosted by the power of a Valley of Screams, the swordsman had briefly caught a glimpse of the worst possible future.

“If the Akatsuki are wiped out here, the war will surely be lost. Your presence is needed to turn the tide – I’ve seen it.” He had said. Fair enough, Law had sighed in response. Mihawk himself, on the other hand, had planned to dash south with Buggy, to stop some sort of threat to Marineford. Not that he had told Law any more than that.

Suddenly, as he warped over top of the icy forest below, Law found himself shaken from his thoughts at the sight of a small figure dashing across the snow, his black clothing starkly visible against the white. Instantly, Law changed trajectory and warped downward. As his feet found solid ground once more, the figure skidded to a halt a few feet in front of him.

“Law,” Itachi greeted, inclining his head. “You survived.”

“Luppi didn’t.” Law responded. “Ulquiorra?”

“Dead as well.”

Privately, though he had no particular feelings about Ulquiorra, Law felt a flicker of relief. Two Espada had died, per the announcer’s words, which meant Nel was alive. Had she killed Doflamingo? Had she lost but not died? Or was their battle still going?

Law pushed the questions from his mind. He had other things to concern himself with.

“You don’t look well,” Itachi spoke, frowning as he glanced Law up and down with something that almost resembled concern. Law twitched; he had warped the blood away from himself, but he imagined his clothes looked ragged. As though he had read Law’s mind, Itachi clarified: “Exhausted, I mean.”

Law felt a stab of annoyance. “Yeah? What’s it to you?”

Itachi was silent. At that moment, for some reason, Law registered that something about the Uchiha’s gaze had changed. His red gleaming eyes, filled with intelligence, had appeared cold. Dead. Resigned. But now, somehow they seemed to gleam just slightly brighter.

It unnerved him.

Finally Itachi replied. “I can’t exactly fight alongside someone ready to collapse. You’ll need your strength for the coming fight.”

“I don’t suppose you can ask the Espada to wait 12 hours or so.” Law replied sardonically.

Itachi closed his eyes, concentrating. Then…

“Tsukuyomi.” They snapped open, and Law froze, as though his mind was paralyzed in place, and everything faded to black.

Then, a moment later, he snapped back into reality. The clearing that they stood in came into sharper focus than before. The wind whistled in his ears, the cold air biting against his skin. Law staggered slightly.

“Wh…What…?” He blinked heavily, shaking his head to clear it. All of a sudden, he felt rested. Rejuvenated.

“Twelve hours,” Itachi looked almost amused, though his left eye twitched slightly, and he reached up to wipe a trickle of blood that dripped from its corner. “In a little under half a millisecond. How are you feeling?”

Law stared. After a stunned moment, he replied. “Like I could take on ten Espada.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

Itachi vanished, springing up to the branch of a nearby tree, and then dashing off westward. As he went, Law stared after him.

‘He’s definitely different. Even just from what little I saw of him before… What the hell happened in that fight with Ulquiorra?’

Shaking his head, he again pushed the thoughts from his mind, and manifested a Room around him. After his makeshift rest session, it stretched to much further distances than before. Begrudgingly, he mentally thanked Itachi. This would shorten the trip tremendously.

In a flash, he vanished. Whatever the case, he wasn’t going to let Itachi get there before him.

—

And now…

Perched atop a skyscraper at the southern end of the Rain Village, Itachi gazed down at the skeletal figure who hovered in the air below, staring up at him with empty eye sockets.

“Baraggan Louisenbairn,” Itachi called down. “Your reputation precedes you.”

“I hope you don’t think that we don’t know about Nelliel’s little scheme,” Baraggan sneered back. The dark energy around his body began to bubble. “We’ve heard all about you, Itachi Uchiha.”

Itachi smiled thinly. “You’ve heard only what I wanted you to hear. Funny thing about those spirit-recording bugs of yours… they can’t hide from the Sharingan. And funny thing about simple creatures like bugs: they’re quite easy to place under Genjutsu.”

Baraggan was silent.

“You understand what I’m saying, don’t you?”

“…You lie.”

Itachi’s lips curled up into a cruel smile.

“You know about some of my allies, Baraggan. You don’t know a thing about me.”

—

At the north end, atop the marshy waters at the edge of the village, Starrk stood atop a singular wooden pole that protruded from the lake. Balanced on one foot, his eye narrowed as his opponent materialized across from him, the space beneath his feet seeming to harden into a platform for him to stand on.

“Well, I’ll admit I didn’t see this coming,” Starrk spoke lightly and conversationally, and made no move to adjust his stance into a defensive position. Silently though, he appraised his foe.

‘Sword about 2 meters in length… no, slightly shorter, 198 centimeters. Unkempt appearance – perhaps he just got out of a fight? Teleportation of himself and others, decent range. Limited space alteration… though exactly how limited is hard to tell.’

“Let me ask you something, young man,” Starrk spoke again, when Law didn’t respond. “What do you think is faster, your teleportation or my trigger finger?”

Law smirked, and raised Kikoku in challenge; he had repaired its broken blade by extending it out with his power. 

“Let’s find out.”

—

Yet again, Harribel found herself alone with Pain. Even with her Resurrección released, however, she didn’t let her guard down. It had turned out as she had worried: the longer the fight had continued and the longer Pain’s bodies had dwindled, the stronger this one, the Deva Path, had become. Now, as it stood alone, she found herself apprehensive.

The Six Paths of Pain… for as difficult as it was to work around six different abilities, all things considered they were not terribly strong individually. Too strong to have struggled with Zommari, for certain, but altogether disappointing enough that it felt odd that Pain led the Akatsuki. Even from just the brief glimpses she had gotten of them, Itachi and Kisame both seemed more imposing.

However, it was clear now that the purpose of the Paths had not been to overwhelm on their own. No… they were chess pieces. Disposable weapons that Pain could use and sacrifice at his leisure, to gain a greater understanding of their abilities, before focusing all of his power in the Deva Path.

The man she faced now… this was the man fearsome enough to be called the leader of the Akatsuki.

Yet even so…

“The bodies you’ve controlled up until now, they were limiting your power. All six of them together, they were all Pain, and yet none of them were. When each was destroyed, all that happened was that more of their power became vested in you.”

She observed Pain’s face intently as she spoke, gauging his reaction, but the man was inscrutable. Finally, he replied.

“Indeed.”

“However… that doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t explain why you struggled against Zommari.”

Pain was silent. Harribel continued.

“Unless you have more than six bodies to spread your power between, it should have been impossible for you to be stronger at the beginning of this fight than you were against him, unless there’s some other factor that impacts your strength other than the number of bodies.”

“…so you are aware of that incident, then? I’ll admit, it troubled me more than it should have.” Pain’s eyes glittered dangerously, his voice especially silky. A person of lesser constitution than Harribel would have stopped speaking upon noticing his tone and expression, but she hadn’t become the monarch of Hueco Mundo by being quick to falter.

“Based on my intuition, then… this last body isn’t Pain either. It’s being controlled from a distance, just like the other five were. You have another body hidden away somewhere – most likely, you get stronger the closer you are to it. That’s why you’re stronger here than you were in the north.”

“…”

A long, tense silence stretched between the two of them. Finally…

“That’s correct. Which is why…” His feet left the ground, and he floated into the air, cloak billowing as he was held aloft by his powers. “You won’t be leaving here alive.”

—

The screech of a Hollow filled the air, immense Reiatsu sizzling against the water of Marineford bay. Explosions rocked the area as stray Ceros bombarded the circular wall around the water.

Over the sounds of the blasts, however, Nnoitra’s insane cackle rang loudest.

After releasing, two extra arms had sprouted from his torso for four in total, and Santa Teresa too had split into four large scythes – one gripped in each of his clawed hands. Horns protruding from either side of his head, his visage had changed to more closely resemble the praying mantis he had once been.

As blinding yellow Ceros blasted from his lolling tongue, Konan flitted between them. Still standing atop the wall above, Boa stood motionless, regarding the fight with something like amusement. Even so, Nnoitra’s confidence didn’t falter as his gaze followed Konan as she evaded him.

“Come on, doll! I thought I was too soft for you! Why not take a hit if you’re tough enough?!”

Konan grimaced. On her part, she had to admit that this was troubling. Nnoitra had become a lot stronger, and she hadn’t been able to find an opening to launch an assault. And yet… somehow, she felt a sense of powerful calm. Even after Nnoitra’s release, her speed wasn’t lagging behind his, though she could tell he had gotten faster. Did that mean she was getting faster too?

It was hardly an unprecedented notion. Combat was widely regarded as the most effective way for a shinobi to hone their skills; a shortcut to powering up, essentially. Even so, the notion of seeing a noticeable difference over the course of a single fight… was it really possible?

Yet as she spun through the air, new ideas flew through her mind. Paper constructs that were more complex and powerful than any that had occurred to her before. Weapons, techniques, strategies… it was like she could see her own potential laid out before her.

On the ledge above, Boa’s lips curled upward into a smile.

‘So it’s exactly as I thought. This arena truly is meant to draw out our fullest potential… and the longer this fight continues the more obvious it becomes that hers is greater than Nnoitra’s.’

With a heave of her wings, Konan twisted in the air and shot toward Nnoitra like a bullet. With a howl of laughter, he fired a Cero from his tongue, but Konan careened to the side and it struck only air. And with far greater speed than even a moment prior, she blasted past the Espada and carved off two of his four limbs with a paper sword.

Without even taking a moment to screech in pain, as blood burst from his arm stumps, Nnoitra’s body swelled with Reiatsu and two new limbs grew from the stumps explosively, instantly repairing the damage. Even still, his smile had vanished.

‘Right through my Hierro…?! Bullshit!’

He spun around and swung his scythes with enough force to split the water, but struck nothing, for Konan had already shot up into the sky and spread her wings wide. As Nnoitra turned up toward her, shielding his eyes from the sunlight, Konan’s wings began to warp, the papers that comprised them coming apart and twisting into new shapes.

“You’ve slowed down, Espada,” she spoke with calm confidence as she worked. “You aren’t getting stronger anymore.”

“Hah?” Nnoitra ground his teeth as a flash of annoyance stabbed her. “What the hell would you know, floozie? Don’t get cocky and think you can judge my real strength, just because you got one good hit in!” 

At last, however, Konan finished the new construct she had been forming. The paper comprising her body had unfurled, her arms splitting into three each, six arms like grand wings now extending around each side of her body. In the center of her chest and forehead, large eyes had opened, and more began to appear up the length of each of her arms. Her normal eyes had slid closed, and a large, circular halo made of paper formed over her head. Nnoitra stared up, baffled.

‘…The hell?’

Konan gazed down at him, every eye that had opened on her body fixed upon him. As she spoke, her voice rang out in a melodic tone – befitting of the angelic form she had now assumed.

“I will judge you as I see fit, Nnoitra Gilga.”

—

“Amaterasu!”

Baraggan howled in agony as black fire erupted across his body, his cloak curling and beginning to disintegrate under heat equal to the sun. Itachi surveyed him with confidence as blood trickled from his bloodshot right eye.

“The black flame that consumes all… it materializes directly on whatever is within my line of vision, so your field cannot halt it.”

Baraggan snarled furiously, and sputtered out, “R-Respira!”

Black aura seeped from his body and intermingled with the Amaterasu – but rather than reduce it to nothing, the fire only swelled in size under the effects of Baraggan’s Senescence.

“Amaterasu will burn forever. Until that which it burns is consumed, it can never be extinguished. Your power can age it a thousand years, a million, a trillion – but you will never reach eternity.”

“ENOUGH!”

Reiatsu exploded out of Baraggan’s body, and the flames were blasted off of him. Under the pressure wave, Itachi’s hair and cloak billowed, but otherwise he didn’t budge.

Baraggan seethed, grinding his teeth together. Most of his skeletal body had been exposed as the Amaterasu had singed his cloak away, and his bones had been badly charred by the attack.

“Even if my Respira can’t stop it, all battles are simply a contest of Reiatsu. My power can suppress anything you send at me!”

“And yet that seemed to hurt. I hope you don’t think that was my only plan to deal with you, specter.”

“Grrrr…!”

‘One down,’ Itachi continued the thought in his head. ‘Four to go.’

—

“I killed Luppi, you know.”

“Oh?” Starrk raised an eyebrow. He seemed surprised at the small talk, as he had been prepared to fight. “Is that so?”

“He was strong. Not strong enough.”

“That’s a shame for him. He was always a bit too caught up in his own need to be the strongest. I had hoped he would come around eventually, before this happened again.”

Law studied Starrk’s face for any sign of what the Arrancar was thinking. He had intended to use Luppi as an intimidation method. Given how Nel had described him, he had supposedly been second strongest among the Espada. Had that been a lie?

“You’re wondering why it doesn’t scare me, that you beat someone stronger than me.”

“…Yeah.”

Starrk looked thoughtful for a moment, as though he was still thinking over the question.

“I guess it’s because I’m not used to the idea that there are people stronger than me. I used to be the Primera, after all. Peers were hard to come by. So even though I know Luppi was stronger than I am, it’s hard to really wrap my head around that, y’know?”

Law couldn’t say he knew the feeling, but he nodded anyway.

“Besides…” Starrk trailed off. He drew his pistol, and in an instant a thousand shots filled the air where Law stood. Steam drifted lazily up from the barrel of his gun, and Starrk tilted his head with an amused smile.

Law materialized midair some distance above, eyes wide. Instantly, Starrk’s shots filled the air once more, and he vanished again. Each time he warped, one after the other Starrk’s shot was instantly on him, and he teleported again. Ten times. A hundred times. A thousand in one second. Then a strike hit home and he staggered and gasped, falling to one knee as blood gushed from the wound that had opened in his side.

“You don’t seem strong enough to have beaten Luppi, anyway.”

—

“La Gota!”

Water twisted around Harribel’s sword, and fired out like a concussive bullet. In a flash, however, a Black Receiver sprouted from Pain’s palm, and with a swing of his arm he had cut through the projectile. As Harribel leapt between buildings, she fired shot after shot of piercing water, but each one Pain dispersed with deadly skill.

Thrusting his arm forward, Pain fired out the Black Receiver, and faster than Harribel could dodge it slashed a gash across her shoulder. Though she didn’t make any acknowledgement of the injury, pain flared through her body momentarily, as if the black rod had been somehow electrified.

With a crack, the building under her feet ruptured, and she lunged forth with Sonído. Without the help of the Pains’ shared vision, it would be harder to evade her attacks. As she closed the gap with Pain, he raised his arm to parry the sweeping blow, and Tiburón slammed into it, the impact creating a small shockwave. Pain grunted in strain as he staggered slightly to the side, but then-

“Shinra Tensei!”

The shockwave exploded out from his body, much stronger than the one that had hit Harribel before. Unable to resist, she was hurled away from him, crashing through multiple buildings before finally slamming to a halt against a distant one. The building behind Pain cratered as well, crushed under omnidirectional force.

Harribel winced, but pulled herself up.

‘A high-powered gravity pulse… my Reiatsu can’t stop it. But…’

She raised Tiburón, angling its point along the row of destroyed buildings toward where Pain floated.

“Blue Smash!”

Geysers of water exploded up from the ground in the path ahead of her, one after the other, closer and closer to Pain. Dashing forward, Pain dodged between each torrent of water, narrowly evading each impact. Within seconds, he had closed the gap between the two of them, his hand reaching out to seize Harribel. At the last second, Tiburón morphed into a broad, white shield and Pain’s palm struck against it, without reaching its target. But…

“Shinra Tensei!”

‘Urgh-!”

Harribel was again blasted back, her shield doing nothing to repel the intense gravity wave. This time, however, she was ready for it. As the ground and buildings ruptured behind her, she recovered midair and landed on her feet, skidding another dozen meters before sliding to a halt.

‘…1.’

Without giving her a moment to breathe, Pain was on her. Another Black Receiver protruding from his palm, he stabbed at her in a violent flurry of blows.

‘…2.’

Each one, the Tres Espada parried with stunning dexterity, though even deflected, several of the stabs just barely missed her face.

‘…3.’

Swinging around, Pain’s foot shot out, and his kick connected with her nose, knocking her off her feet. Reaching out, he seized her by the throat, swinging her around and slamming her to the ground, which cracked under the force.

‘Ugh-!…4…!’

Pain’s eyes gleamed.

“Know Pain, girl.”

‘…5…!’

“Shinra Tensei!”

Point-blank, the force of the blast slammed into Harribel, and the ground beneath her cratered, cracks spreading up across the adjacent buildings as blood spurted from her mouth. Blasted backward along the ground, the pavement ripped into her back and her vision slid out of focus.

Slowly, Harribel dragged herself to her feet, staggering slightly and wiping the blood from her chin.

‘5 seconds. That’s how long he needs to wait between blasts.’

She spun Tiburón in a circle in front of her, pushing any pain she felt out of her head.

‘That’s more than enough.’

“Aguacero Azul!”

In midair around her, the rain that poured down twisted into constructs: swords, spears, knives, and countless more floating in midair, shaped into deadly form by Harribel’s aquakinesis.

“You’ve made a mistake, Pain, challenging me in this rainstorm you created. This is my domain.”

Pain chuckled.

“I don’t think so. Bansho Ten’in!”

As he thrust his hand out, Harribel’s eyes widened as her body was ripped from where she stood. However, unlike before, where Pain had always struck her with massive concussive force, this time he pulled her into the air toward him. Immediately recovering, she willed the weapons she had formed to follow her. As she approached Pain’s outstretched hand, she spun them around in a circular motion, and then telekinetically swung down like a buzzsaw.

Pain leapt backward to dodge, canceling his attack in the process, and as the water weapons ground into the pavement, Harribel slid to a stop, no longer under the grip of Pain’s power. Momentarily, she wondered whether the pull attack had a cooldown like the push, but didn’t have time to think about it further, as Pain assailed her with Black Receivers. The water weapons danced midair, deflecting each projectile before they could ever reach Harribel.

As she thrust out her hand, the weapons angled toward Pain and shot toward him like javelins.

“Shinra Tensei!” Just before the weapons reached him, Pain loosed a gravity wave, and the rain around him was blasted away, the weapons discorporating from the attack.

‘Now!’

Raindrops twisted around Tiburón, and then slid downward to form a long handle in Harribel’s grip, pushing the giant tooth-shaped blade upward. In an instant, the weapon had turned from a pata into a giant polearm with much greater reach. Lunging forward, Harribel drove the point toward Pain’s chest, water twisting around the blade like a drill.

Unable to use Shinra Tensei, Pain’s eyes widened, the blade only inches from his chest. With a burst of inhuman speed, he leapt into the air, his feet barely managing to clear the stab. Behind him, the pressure wave from Harribel’s blast drove into a distant skyscraper, and blasted a giant hole through it – and the three buildings behind it.

‘1 second… keep moving, keep attacking. Hit him before he can recharge.’

Harribel swung the polearm around, and the rain in midair followed it like a deadly scythe. As it struck Pain, though, he used his own momentum to carry himself along with it. Hurled to the side by her sweeping attack, he tumbled head over heels across the ground, but quickly caught himself.

‘2 seconds…’

Harribel brought the polearm down, and giant blades of water ripped from the storm clouds above, descending on Pain at blinding speed. Quickly, though, he raised his hand.

“Bansho Ten’in!”

Rather than pull her toward him, as he had before, his body lurched forward, and he was dragged out of the way as the blades of water impaled the spot where he had just been. He had managed to pull himself toward her with his attack rather than vice-versa.

As he drove a Black Receiver forward toward Harribel’s throat, she spun the polearm and the weapon glanced against the shaft of the weapon. This time, however, it was only partially deflected, and drove itself into her shoulder and she cried out.

‘Agh-! …3 seconds…!’

Agonizing sensation exploded through her as Pain’s chakra flowed freely into the wound through the Black Receiver. Filling her whole body, it rooted Harribel in place, the wound throbbing violently as though poison was flowing in through the wound to tear her apart from the inside.

‘2… seconds… 1 second…’

Pain didn’t smile.

“Your time is up, Tier Harribel.”

‘Now.’

Harribel forced her eyes open. Through the Black Receiver, she forced a trickle of her energy, which mingled with Pain’s chakra and grew like a river, shooting along the flow into Pain’s body, his own receivers, and finally away from them. Up the delicate threads of energy that were barely perceptible, all the way to the heart of the city… and in her mind’s eye, she saw him. His figure almost skeletal, his hair blood red, his eyes a full purple…

Pain’s eyes widened.

“No!”

He ripped out the Black Receiver, but the damage had been done. Rage contorted Pain’s features.

“Y…You… what did you just do?”

“I took a look behind the curtain. Saw the man behind the monster.”

“…”

“You don’t look well.”

“…”

“I think I’ll pay you a visit. As soon as we’re done here, I mean.”

Harribel raised her polearm. Satisfaction lined her features.

“And then I’ll tear down this city.”

—

Nnoitra’s blades whirled and spun, each of his four hands moving independently with expert dexterity. His cackles filled the air as he pressured his opponent through the air at blinding speed. Each of Konan’s six wing-like arms wielded a long paper sword, her moves sharp and elegant while Nnoitra’s were wild and chaotic – like an elegant fencer facing a helicopter blade.

“You’re too slow, Akatsuki scum! I’ll slice you to death!”

As one of Nnoitra’s blades penetrated Konan’s defenses, it carved into her body, splitting through the paper. Immediately, however, she had recovered, and her blade shot up, carving away the arm that had landed the blow. Just as quickly, Nnoitra regenerated with a howl of amusement.

A slash that tore through paper. A cut that rent flesh. Each time one of them bit into the other’s body, the other healed almost immediately. A war of attrition, in which both players stubbornly refused to give ground.

Flash!

The eyes all across Konan’s body bulged, and blinding light exploded from them. Nnoitra flinched, an arm raising to shield his eye. In the momentary lapse, gashes opened across his chest, and he let out a growl of pain as he was hurled back through the air, before righting himself.

Paper flew around him, blank pages hanging in the air around Nnoitra on every side. His gaze flickered back and forth in confusion and then-

Shink! A gash opened across the back of his shoulder and he snarled, turning to swing a scythe through the paper that hung behind him. The next second, a new blow struck him from a different angle, and he turned, before being struck again, and again.

Hands clenching around his weapons, he concentrated. With his Pesquisa, he could tell what was happening: the woman was moving across the surfaces of her papers like a living drawing, instantly moving between them to attack him from different angles. Grinding his teeth, two more arms sprouted from Nnoitra’s sides – now numbering six in total, a match for Konan’s new form.

“Pathetic trick!”

In a blur, Nnoitra spun, six scythes that each of his hands held turning into a whirlwind of blades. One by one each page around him was carved into pieces, until he spun to the halt in the middle of a confetti hail.

Nnoitra didn’t have long to be pleased with himself, however. The flurry of confetti swirled into a tornado, spinning around him at blinding speed and carving tiny gashes into his skin. He howled in pain, compelling his skin to become harder until the cuts stopped. Breathing heavily, he forced himself to calm down. No matter how strong his opponent’s offense became, his defenses could always get stronger in return.

As soon as he had the thought, however, the confetti tornado spun away from him and congealed back into Konan’s body. She thrust a hand out, and the paper remaining around her formed into new shapes: half a dozen paper machine guns, all angled toward Nnoitra.

“Give up.”

“Fuck you.”

Without hesitation, the guns opened fire. Paper bullet after paper bullet hammered into Nnoitra’s titanium body, exploding on impact (no doubt enhanced by tiny explosive tags). Nnoitra crossed his arms in front of him, gritting his teeth as he weathered the assault, each hit leaving a bruise or a tiny knick behind.

Finally, the hail of bullets halted. Slowly, carefully, Nnoitra lowered his arms. A vein bulged in his head, but otherwise he appeared pleased.

“Out of ammo?”

Konan stared back at him, silently. 

From atop the execution platform in the distance, Boa gazed down at the fight in amusement. Having retreated up to the higher vantage point, she now sat on a large throne, the leftmost of three that were normally reserved for Marine Admirals. After long-since recognizing that Konan no longer needed her help, she had excused herself from the fight, and was now enjoying herself watching the combatants’ back-and-forth.

‘That fool… he doesn’t realize yet that the fight is already over.’

Nnoitra’s body throbbed. His smile froze. His arms ached, and as he looked down, he realized with sharp dismay that the knicks on his arms weren’t healing.

‘Wha-?’

Sweat beads formed on his forehead as a wave of nausea suddenly hit him and his chest began to ache. He staggered slightly in midair, nearly losing his balance on the Reishi beneath his feet. Hovering above him, Konan’s many eyes gazed down at him imperiously.

“W-What the hell… did you do…?!”

“You’re a praying mantis, no? Or at least something close to one. Mantises have a remarkable circulatory system that allows them to regenerate from injury. That’s why you can heal so rapidly.”

“What the fuck does that have to do with-”

“Oleander bark.”

“What?”

“My jutsu can generate paper endlessly from my body. Under normal circumstances, I use a makeup similar to the paper you would get from spruce wood. Common. Easy. Safe. But I can also change the construction if I want, to replicate the properties of other plants. So I chose oleander bark. It’s highly toxic to all sorts of animals if it finds its way into the blood stream.”

An image flashed into her mind, of a fight she had once had with one of her comrades, when she had gone to the desert to recruit him.

“It was inspired by a friend of mine.”

“B…Bull-fucking-shit…! As if you knew all of that shit off the top of your head! Y-You just made that up…!”

“Then why aren’t you healing?”

Nnoitra swayed in place, his vision blurring. He snarled furiously, but didn’t have a retort. As Konan ascended into the air above him, she reached up to the large eye in the center of her forehead, and from it she pulled a long shaft of paper, which unfurled and twisted until it had fully formed into a long shape.

The weapon was a long spear made of paper, a thin pole that split into two blades at the end, which were twisted around one another into a spiral and then extended out into two razor sharp prongs. Raising it over her head, Konan released her grip on it, and it floated in the air above her, pointed down at Nnoitra, whose hands balled into fists.

“You have fought and lost, Nnoitra Gilga. Now you stand before my presence, and shall be judged. I implore you to listen with an open heart.”

“Go. To. Hell.”

“If that is your answer, then very well. Your sin weighs heavily upon your soul, and you will depart this world having strayed from the path of virtue.” 

Below Nnoitra, a massive rumbling sounded. Nnoitra’s eyes widened, and with all his willpower he craned his neck to look below him. The waters of Marineford bay had parted, split down the middle – a giant canyon with either side made up of millions of pieces of paper.

His eyes widened.

‘No way… No way she could make all of those at once…!’ Suddenly, a horrible thought occurred to him. ‘Has she been setting that up this entire time?! Playing around… since the beginning?!’

Above him, as if in response to his thoughts, a second Konan materialized beside the one he had been fighting. This Konan was not transformed; she looked as she had when their fight had begun. The Konan beside her unfurled into paper, and was reabsorbed into her body.

‘…!!! A clone?!’

The real Konan gazed down at him, pity in her gaze. Nnoitra willed his skin as hard as he could make it, but spots danced in front of his eyes. He found himself unable to move, unable to get out of the way. Still, he remained defiant. A vein ruptured in his forehead as he strained. 

‘Throw it. Throw it, you fucking bitch, and I’ll take it. You won’t cut me again. You won’t.’

Konan swung her arm down, and the lance that floated above her blasted forward, a sonic boom rupturing the air behind it. An instant later, it slammed into Nnoitra’s chest and drove straight through him. Blood spurted from his mouth as he was hurled downward, soaring between the two halves of the paper bomb sea. Above him, Konan raised one hand up to eye level, forming a simple hand seal. As Nnoitra’s scream of rage split the air, she focused her chakra.

“Rest.”

Thousands of explosions split the air at once, and Nnoitra’s scream was drowned out by the cacophony.

—

“ATTENTION ALL PARTICIPANTS! ONE OF THE ESPADA HAS DIED! SIX REMAIN!”

For the first time in days, the announcement was heard loud and clear across every corner of the arena. When Luppi’s energy had penetrated the dark shroud, the hole in the clouds was still very small, and it could only be faintly heard by the three Warlords present. As such, the majority of the Espada had not yet gotten wind of their fallen allies.

‘Six?!’ Harribel could not help but stiffen in horror. Aside from the three Espada doing battle in the Rain Village, she had been under the impression that her remaining allies were six in number. Somehow, just today, that number had been cut in half.

Across the battlefield, Baraggan let out a scoff of disgust, and Starrk bowed his head slightly. His gaze met the wounded Law’s.

“So, you were probably telling the truth about killing Luppi then.” It was more a statement than a question.

In spite of his injuries, Law grinned. “Told ya.” Starrk frowned.

“Seems unfair that we don’t know how many of you all are left. Let’s take a head count.”

A Cero ripped through the air, but in anticipation Law teleported the water beneath up in front of him. As the beam of light struck the distorted surface, it bent, refracting through to the side and missing Law by over a foot. The water crashed down, revealing that Law had vanished again.

As the surrounding air hummed with energy, dozens of water globs were warped into the air, suspended in place by Law’s power. As he blinked around the battlefield, the water globs reflected a distorted mirror image of him. Starrk winced, blinking as he glanced around.

“Urgh! What the heck? I can’t follow his movements!”

“Optical illusions,” Starrk murmured under his breath. “He’s using the water to mess with my vision, make it harder to track him. And if I miss and hit the water, the light will bend, which will make it even harder to hit him. Tricky, tricky.”

From above, a spatial slash descended. Instantly, one of Starrk’s bandoliers morphed into a blue sword of pure energy, and he parried the slash. With his other hand, Starrk whipped his gun up and blasted, the Cero piercing Law’s position just a microsecond after he vanished from it.

As the shimmering images all around him continued to move in unpredictable ways, Starrk’s eyes shifted around. Each time a new slash came, he parried and responded with a lightning-quick shot toward where it came from.

“It’s not really anything special, though. I can just follow the direction of his attacks and keep him moving till he tires out.” He smiled faintly as he parried and shot again. “I’ll just have to be careful not to fall asleep.”

“You better not fall asleep!”

Starrk sweatdropped.

“It was a joke.”

“Not funny!”

For a moment, the reflections in the floating water bubbles vanished. Starrk blinked, confused, then-

Crunch!

The wooden post beneath his feet split in half, a spatial slash ripping up between his feet, launched from the water below.

“Woah there!” Starrk yelped as he was propelled into the air, spinning around and letting the slash blast past him, just barely nicking his fur-covered coat. “Not the cajones!”

Landing midair, he shifted back to two pistols, and blasted hundreds of shots into the water.

“Hold on, Starrk! These guys aren’t supposed to be able to swim-”

Slash!

Starrk staggered, struck for the first time as a thin cut opened across his back. Whirling around, he fired toward where the shot came from, but hit nothing but air. Another cut sheared into the back of his calf and he went down to one knee.

“Dummy! He’s teleporting his own attacks!”

Starrk winced. “Damn.”

It was clever, he had to admit. Law had deliberately baited him into the assumption that his attacks had to come from the same direction as his body, and then switched up his strategy. Now, his body was still teleporting all over the place, while his attacks were coming from completely different directions than his real location. Even with Pesquisa active, it was dizzying to try to keep up with all of the boy’s movements and slashes at the same time.

“Lilynette.”

“Yup yup?”

Starrk inhaled heavily and then exhaled.

“Let’s ramp things up.”

He could practically see his other half’s impish grin in his mind’s eye. 

“Fufufu… I love this part!”

Crossing his arms in front of him so that either pistol was aimed to opposite sides, Starrk uncrossed his arms sharply, thrusting both guns out. Glowing brightly, Los Lobos changed shape, their single barrels splitting into two and growing longer and thicker. The hole atop his left eye began to glow a faint blue, smoke drifting up out of it as though from the barrel of the gun. The surface of the water quivered as his Reiatsu intensified sharply.

Law’s slashes, which had continued to assail the Primera Espada, warped and dissipated in midair upon contact with Starrk’s newly-empowered Reiatsu. Unnerved, Law paused in his teleportation for a brief moment. Cracking his neck, Starrk took on a truly serious expression for the first time.

“I don’t like trying very hard… My playmates always tend to die too quick when I don’t keep a lid on things. But then again, you killed Luppi, didn’t you? You shouldn’t break so easy.”

He raised both guns to eye level, and Law vanished again, resuming his rapid teleportation at even greater speed.

“I’ll show you what it means to be the Primera!”

If his firing speed had seemed fast before, it had now become entirely inhuman. In an instant, so quickly that there was no visible time lag between shots, all of the hundreds – no, thousands – of water bubbles that Law had suspended in midair were blasted into tiny water droplets. In another instant, each of those drops was eradicated simultaneously.

Law didn’t need to react to every Cero, only the ones that flew in his own direction. Warping the air in front of him, the light beams that approached him curved out of the way, missing him. A second later, however, a dozen more shots came, so fast that he had no time to teleport, only defend once again.

‘What the hell is that speed?! Is this guy seriously weaker than Luppi?!’

With a swing of his bandolier, Starrk hurled hundreds of bullet casings into the air. With a start, Law realized that now that his water bubbles had been eradicated, he was in plain sight midair. Starrk turned and fired a shot directly toward Law, and just in time he managed to teleport.

In the time it took Law to relocate, however, the Cero bullseye’d one of the bullet casings that Starrk had hurled out. Off the reflective edge of the casing, the Cero ricocheted, hurtling toward Law’s new location at the speed of light and grazing the side of his head before he could react. As Law cried out in surprise, Starrk fired a hundred shots in every direction, and Law was forced to teleport again. Somehow, every beam found a bullet casing, and in an instant the vicinity had been turned into a massive cage, light beams bouncing back and forth between the many reflection points that Starrk had created. It was as though nearly every square centimeter of the vicinity had been filled with an attack.

Law wasn’t sure how he did it. Perhaps it was the phenomenon known as Haki Bloom, where a person’s power could swell dramatically in life or death situations. Perhaps it was simply sheer adrenaline. But in that moment, he found himself able to keep up. Every time a laser came his way, he teleported, and then did it again, and again and again. A dozen lasers, a hundred, a thousand.

Somehow, in a display of speed that would have impressed even Mihawk, he managed to keep ahead of them all. 

They grazed him, carved into his sides, left burns. But several seconds later, as the bullet casings finally finished their fall into the water and Starrk’s attack ceased, Law materialized without serious injury. Wheezing, he staggered, barely remaining on his feet. Sweat poured down his face. The adrenaline fled his body and his head throbbed; whatever vitality he had regained from Itachi’s Tsukuyomi was rapidly dwindling. 

Across from him, Starrk regarded him calmly. Unlike Law, there wasn’t a hint of exhaustion on his face. If anything, he looked more alert than he had before.

“Wow,” he remarked. “I’ve never seen anyone dodge that attack before. Though I suppose Lord Aizen could have done it, probably.”

Law struggled to catch his breath. If Starrk tried that attack again, he wasn’t sure he could do the same thing a second time. 

“Incidentally,” Starrk continued, “you should know that Ceros are a common Hollow technique. They’re remarkably powerful and exceptionally fast. It’s a technique that I can use unlike any other, which is part of why I’m so strong.”

“Y…Yeah…?” Law ground out as the burning in his chest slowly lessened. He wasn’t sure why Starrk was telling him this, but he welcomed the chance to recover.

“I’m also quite adept with another technique. I doubt Luppi used it against you; it’s called Bala. It’s a lot less powerful than a Cero, but it still packs a punch. The difference is, it’s a lot faster. Twenty times faster.”

All of a sudden, Law felt as though he had removed his own heart with his Ope Ope no Mi. His mouth had become very dry, and his blood had turned to ice. Studying Law’s expression, Starrk didn’t smile.

“I suppose what I’m asking is… would you like me to use Bala next time, or not?”

—

Shiiiiiing!

The Totsuka Blade carved through the wave of Respira that rippled toward Itachi. Like a vacuum, the smog was sucked up through the shaft of the spiritual blade, sealed away into the gourd at the hip of Itachi’s Susanoo. All things considered, Itachi calmly assessed, Baraggan was a one-trick pony. Of course, it was understandable with a weapon as powerful as the Breath of Death, but so long as Itachi was able to prevent it from overwhelming the vicinity, the skeletal figure was a manageable foe.

Unfortunately, he had found his options for dealing with it somewhat limited. While Respira could not dispel Amaterasu, the inverse was also true; the dark energy was impossible to burn away with the black flame. Not altogether surprising, but disappointing. Perhaps more startling, the Yata Mirror had proven ineffective. Though it could mimic the properties of any attack to cancel it out, the mirror’s surface area was limited. Thus, while the shield itself was impervious to Respira’s effects, the attack could simply move around it and eat away at the rest of the Susanoo.

That said, between substitutions and clones, it wasn’t hard to keep ahead of the effect. Even if it managed to catch a portion of the Susanoo and cause it to crumble away, Itachi could simply reform that portion upon escaping. And thus far, the Hollow had yet to vary his attack patterns in any way that was difficult to deal with.

On the other hand, Itachi hadn’t managed to make much headway in terms of hurting him.

With a snarl, Baraggan raised his giant axe, and Respira twisted around it. Swinging it down, a Respira slash hurtled toward Itachi, and he blocked with the Yata Mirror before quickly sweeping the residue up with the Totsuka Blade. As the Susanoo advanced on Baraggan and swung the Totsuka Blade in large slashing motions, clearing away the miasma in its path, Baraggan began to ooze with darker energy still.

“You dare attempt to strike me, human?! You will be dust by the end of this!” 

Thrusting a hand downward, he drove his Respira down into the ground beneath them. From the pavement in his path, black spike constructs made up of pure Respira erupted up, until finally one of them speared up through the bottom of the Susanoo. It skewered Itachi directly through the chest, but a moment later the shinobi exploded violently, steam rippling outward to cover the area.

“Tch!” Baraggan loosed a wave of Reiatsu to clear away the mist. Suddenly, however, the Totsuka Blade erupted from the ground behind him, piercing up through his chest. From the ground, Itachi emerged unharmed, a Susanoo rib cage having materialized around his body.

“A decent tactic. I hope you don’t mind me borrowing it.”

Baraggan let out a rumbling growl and reached up, seizing the spiritual blade protruding from his chest with his long, skeletal fingers.

“Don’t get cocky, boy.”

Itachi balked. Having seen this many times by now with Ulquiorra, he was not surprised by Baraggan’s resistance. But as Respira spread across the length of the blade, it was not absorbed this time, and the spiritual sword crumbled away under Baraggan’s grip.

‘!’

As Baraggan swept his arm around, Respira surged forth and consumed the spot where Itachi stood, but at high speed Itachi vanished, leaping up to a nearby building and landing on its side, securing himself to the wall with chakra. Baraggan’s empty eye sockets shifted up toward him.

“Do not take me lightly. I am far older and more clever than you ever will be, sprat.”

Itachi pressed his lips together.

‘This isn’t working… to think that this is twice now that the Totsuka Blade has been countered.’

Baraggan hurled a spear of darkness that skewered through the suspended Itachi’s chest, but rather than crumble into dust, his body split apart, separating into numerous crows in a flurry of wings and feathers.

As several of them soared in different directions, Respira swirled after them and they careened to evade. One crow, however, had split up from the rest and soared off north, into the distance. The rest of them met in the air and reformed into Itachi in time for him to block Respira with the Yata Mirror once again.

‘Two options down. Three to go.’

—

After her sea of paper bombs had finished detonating and the announcement had sounded to signify Nnoitra’s demise, Konan wasted no time leaping into the air. As her wings unfurled behind her, she didn’t bother concerning herself with Boa. The woman had left her to wage the fight with Nnoitra alone; as far as Konan was concerned, they were done here. And regardless, she had bigger things to worry about.

‘Stupid!’

Without her focus being occupied with Nnoitra, she finally had the freedom to kick herself for leaving Nagato alone. It had been a foolish risk, one that was born from desperation and a deep, undying concern for her oldest friend’s safety.

She needed to get home.

She needed to return to his side, and she needed to help him fight.

She had already wasted too much time here.

As she took to the sky, though, the air that had been clear just moments prior abruptly darkened as clouds swirled into existence above her. As the sun was blotted out by the sudden storm, Konan froze in midair, immediately going on the defensive. Her first thought was that Nnoitra was somehow alive, or that Boa was the one doing it, to prevent her from leaving, but within a moment she had banished the thought from her head. Neither of them had demonstrated any sort of weather or darkness related powers.

From where Boa stood on the balcony below, Konan could faintly hear Boa calling up to her. Though she couldn’t make out her words, she could tell they were spoken frantically and urgently. An instant later, however, she felt a mysterious force grip her body, and rip her down from the air.

As she impacted the water, Konan felt the wind knocked out of her, and for a moment rolled over underwater, too disoriented to get her bearings. A moment later, she dragged herself up and her head broke the surface of the bay. Gasping for breath, she pulled herself up into a crouching position atop the water’s surface. It was then that she spotted the source of the sudden darkness.

Entering the bay in the far distance, a huge pirate ship sailed in through Marineford’s front gate. Towering and imposing, smoke wafted off the lower bows of the ship. The water below seemed to grow a darker, deeper, colder shade of blue, as blackness spread through it like ink, bleaching the bay until it was nearly pitch black.

Atop the bow ship’s bow, an enormous man stood perched, hanging on to one of the ropes with one hand as he leaned out ahead of the ship, his other hand shimmering with dark energy. Though Konan had never seen him before, as she met his gaze she felt a chill go up her spine, as though she was staring into a deep abyss, eternal and deeply evil.

In that moment, Boa’s voice finally reached her from the inner shore.

“Run!”

The uncharacteristic urgency in Boa’s tone shook Konan out of her daze. But before she could comply, she felt that strange force grip her once more, and the chakra holding her feet to the water’s surface was severed as she was ripped into the air, hurtling toward the man’s outstretched hand, in the grip of an unseen pulling effect. As his fingers closed around her throat, her only thought was that it reminded her of Pain’s Bansho Ten’in.

“Zehahahahahaha!” The man crackled, his wide grin showing off many missing teeth. “What do we have here? A little bird found her way into Marineford?”

“Let her go!” The man’s gaze turned away from Konan with another gravelly chuckle. On the shore ahead, Boa stood, a Slave Arrow leveled at the man’s wide chest. “You are not welcome here, Blackbeard. Leave.”

Blackbeard laughed. “Leave? But why would I do that, when you little mice were kind enough to vacate for me? I think I’ll sink this place into the sea and be done with it.”

As he spoke, Konan willed her body to move, transform into paper, do anything… and found with a flash of fear that she could not. Somehow, in Blackbeard’s grip, her jutsu eluded her.

On the shore, Boa spoke again in a lower tone. Anger, and something else underneath that.

“Leave. Or I will make you leave.”

“Zehahahaha… let’s see it then.”

—

On the north end of the Rain Village, Law swung his sword at blinding speed. Direct melee combat wasn’t quite his specialty, but fighting from a distance clearly wasn’t working; Starrk’s trigger finger was too fast. So rather than continue trying to evade, he would see to it that the Primera Espada wouldn’t get a chance to fire his guns.

It turned out, however, that Starrk wasn’t solely fearsome for being a sharpshooter. Sword in one hand and Los Lobos pistol in the other, his sword strikes were sharp and precise, and he expertly used the gun to deflect attacks to the side before following up with shots.

Still, compared to his ranged abilities, it was at least manageable.

Law swung Kikoku to the right, and Starrk raised the blade in his own right hand to parry. For half a second, Law willed his sword to warp forward, just a few inches, and it blipped out of existence, shifting past Starrk’s guard. Starrk jerked his head back, his reactions laser sharp, but the slash scored a thin cut across the bridge of his nose with a small spray of blood.

As he finished the slash with his right arm, Law raised his left upward, and immediately as he completed the strike, he teleported the sword from one hand to the other. Instantly, he brought his left arm down, leaving no pause or time to reorient between his strikes. Starrk raised the pistol clutched in his left hand at an angle, and the downward stroke from Law glanced off of it, redirected to the side. With a spin of the gun, Starrk thrust the barrel directly toward Law’s face, but as soon as he pulled the trigger, Law warped behind him, ready to strike once again.

Bang!

“Ack!”

The sword in Starrk’s right hand had changed into a second gun at the same time that he had aimed with his left. Aiming it behind him, along his left hip, the Bala that Starrk released gouged a hole into the side of Law’s stomach, and he hacked up blood, his attack stalling. 

Starrk whirled around, and his foot connected with Law’s face with a crack! Law flinched backward midair, blood gushing from his nose, but in the time Starrk spent striking, he had used his Ope Ope no Mi to close up the wound in his stomach. Instinctively, he could tell that the internal damage wasn’t severe enough to require urgent treatment, and so focused his instant of attention on stopping the bleeding.

Starrk took aim with his guns, but as he opened fire, a massive orange wall materialized in front of Law, and the Cero barrage that he released struck against it harmlessly, dissipating into puffs of steam.

Atop Law’s shoulder, a crow landed: the one that Itachi had sent to the north. Its eyes gleamed a bright red; it seemed that Itachi had implanted limited versions of his abilities into it. Or at least, that was what Law assumed this strange barrier was.

The crow cawed, and Law met its gaze. As its eyes gleamed, information flowed into his mind, a message from Itachi. He blinked, and then sighed. Raising a hand, he swiped his fingers across his broken nose and the bleeding dried up, the cartilage stitching itself back into place.

“Sorry, bud,” Law spoke. Across from him, Starrk’s eyebrow quirked upward. “Not that this hasn’t been fun, but I’m gonna have to tag out for a bit. Change of strategy.”

“Oh?”

Law closed his eyes, willing his Room to expand far enough that it encompassed the entire city. Finally, he opened his eyes, and raised two of his fingers, flashing Starrk a peace sign.

“Later.” Then, he twisted his hand around, angling his two fingers upward. “Shambles.”

—

Law’s eyes blinked open. His surroundings had changed entirely; whereas previously he had stood atop the air in the middle of the water, he now found himself surrounded on all sides by buildings, in a section of the Rain Village that had been thoroughly destroyed. All around him, black fire raged violently, crackling with intense heat as it consumed everything it touched.

Across from him, cloaked in his Respira, Baraggan appeared startled by his sudden appearance. With a growl, he spoke.

“What trickery is this? Where did the boy go?”

“Sorry, bones,” Law replied with a slight grin. “But we traded off. I’ll be your opponent now.”

—

Back on the north end of the village, Itachi stood atop the water’s surface, staring down Starrk coldly. The Espada seemed unphased by the sudden change of opponent.

“Oh my,” he drawled. “A switch up, I see… I take it you sent that other fellow off to fight Baraggan? I hope you weren’t having too much trouble with him.”

“What a wuss!” Lilynette crowed, giggling. “He better not think we’ll be any easier to beat!”

“Easier?” Itachi replied. “No. A better matchup, perhaps, but not easier. I know of your strength, Primera.”

“Wh-?! You can hear me?!”

“I can see you.” Itachi’s scarlet eyes gleamed. “I can see everything. Two souls, once separate, now one…”

Starrk’s eyes widened sharply. All of a sudden, he found himself floating in a dark, empty void. Slowly, he turned, surprise etched on his features as he found himself faced with Lilynette’s shimmering spirit form, hanging in midair. In front of her, Itachi stood, his hand extended out toward her face. She stared, transfixed, at the center of his palm, as though in a deep trance.

Itachi’s gaze turned toward Starrk, and their eyes met. The glow of the Sharingan seemed to fill Starrk’s mind. Lilynette’s pupils transformed, a Sharingan pattern etched across her retinas, her face frozen in a look of blank shock.

“Let’s see you fight alone.”

The mental world shattered, and Starrk staggered, hand reaching up to clutch his throbbing head.

‘Urgh…! The hell did he… Lilynette…! …Lilynette!’

Somehow, his mind felt different. Empty. The chirping voice that was ever-present while he was fused with Lilynette was gone.

Starrk was alone.

Faintly, he registered that he still had Los Lobos clutched in his hands; whatever Itachi had done hadn’t shut down his Resurrección nor ended their fusion. Somehow, the two were still one, but his other half had been silenced.

“You…!” Starrk raised his pistols and prepared to unload upon Itachi, but as he pulled the trigger, no power emerged. He stiffened, staring down at the guns in dismay.

“I’ve suppressed the other spirit within you,” Itachi spoke conversationally, and Starrk’s gaze slowly shifted up toward him. Anger and emotion clouded his eyes for the first time. “It’ll take a lot to break a Genjutsu seal like that one. The question is… how much can you truly do on your own?”

Starrk’s hands shook, clenching tightly around Los Lobos’ grip. How much could he do on his own…? The question had never occurred to him. He had always relied on Lilynette’s power while released… it was she who provided the energy for their Ceros.

“You hold yourself back, Coyote Starrk,” Itachi continued, as though he could read Starrk’s mind, and in fact he could. “Even after releasing the limiter on the girl’s power, you still lack the conviction to unleash your own.”

“…the hell are you doing?” Starrk growled, his voice low. “You want me to kill you? You trying to help your enemy? What’s the matter with you?”

Itachi considered the question.

“I suppose I simply know what it means to stand alone. To have spent a lifetime doing nothing but kill those I would rather stand alongside. The need to restrain yourself… and the effort it takes to break that restraint… these are things I understand.”

Starrk stared down at the guns in his hands, morosely.

“You don’t know what you’re messing with. I start using my power… everyone in this city – no, this arena – dies. Only Aizen has ever…”

“I will live.”

Starrk blinked. He looked up at Itachi, incredulous.

“You-”

Itachi’s Susanoo shimmered into existence around him. He stood firmly rooted where he stood. His gaze was intense.

“Use your power. I will live.”

Starrk stared, and then he chuckled.

“You’re an idiot.”

He took aim with his gun.

“Don’t blame me for what happens next.”

—

As she leapt into the air above Pain, Harribel hurled Tiburón like a javelin, and it speared down, spinning like a drill through the air. After it, Harribel blasted herself downward with Sonído, and as the spear slammed to a halt inches from Pain’s face, Harribel caught up to it and drove it forward further with her own impact. As her hands closed around the spear’s shaft and pushed it forward, water sprayed past, striking the ground on either side of Pain.

“Shinra Tensei!”

In an instant, Harribel was blasted away through the air, the shockwave tearing up the ground beneath her. But as she righted herself midair, she clenched the fist that wasn’t holding Tiburón, and the water on either side of Pain swirled upward, forming into chains and wrapping around him.

At blinding speed, Harribel blitzed back in. Around each of her hands, water materialized, morphing into solid shark heads like makeshift boxing gloves. Rapidly, she pressured the chained-up Pain with razor-sharp jabs, but even restrained he was fast, and they struck only air. Finally, Harribel brought a water-covered fist down into the ground, and water exploded out, spreading across the ground and then rising into the air behind Pain. It formed into a giant shark, its jaws opening wide as Pain turned toward it, and then crashed down on his head like a tidal wave.

Without missing a beat, Harribel telekinetically pulled the water toward herself, the soaked Pain ripped bodily forward.

“Congelación!”

The water around Harribel’s hand froze solid, and as she pulled Pain toward her she slammed a fist of ice into his fist, his chest, his stomach – battering him violently as he was too water-logged to resist.

“Shinra Tensei!”

A shockwave exploded out of Pain’s body, the water expelled from him and the ice fist shattered. Harribel herself skidded backward, but even point-blank the attack hadn’t hurt as much as prior ones had.

“Bansho Ri’shi!”

As Pain raised a hand, loose chunks of rubble, pipes from nearby buildings, and any debris in the area lifted into the air, and then shot in toward Harribel like bullets. The first few, she managed to cut out of the air, but soon found herself overwhelmed as countless projectiles slammed into her and stuck there, as though magnetized to her body.

Staggering, she struggled to move under the sudden weight, but with concentration, the raindrops around her sheared across her skin and carved the rubble away, spinning around each chunk and liquefying it into dust. In the momentary lapse before more chunks hit her, Harribel threw Tiburón into the air, and it spun for a moment, before water erupted from its hilt and propelled it through the air like a missile.

As it zoomed toward Pain, he rolled to the side to dodge, keeping his hand outstretched to maintain the gravity effect that he had placed on Harribel. But as Tiburón zoomed past him, the water propelling it forward curved, and it changed direction like a heat-seeking missile. Blazing back toward Pain, he leapt over it to dodge. Yet again, it changed direction and followed him. Acrobatically, Pain dodged it again and again, but it kept coming, its water filling the air with vapor as it pursued him relentlessly.

Finally, Pain relented. Swinging his arm around, he blocked the blade as it skidded to a halt in front of his outstretched hand. With a wave of gravity, it was blasted away, but freed from the magnetic effect, Harribel leapt in and seized it, bringing it down toward Pain. Just in time, he conjured a Black Receiver in either hand and crossed them in front of himself, blocking the attack.

As they struggled against each other, Harribel put on more pressure, and Pain slowly began to inch backward ever so slightly. Her gaze met his, both glowering ruthlessly as they strained against each other.

“Good…” Pain whispered darkly. “That’s good… such absolute determination to win this fight. When everything comes crashing down, and you see what it means to come so close and still lose everything… then, perhaps you will understand a fraction of my pain.”

—

Facing off against Baraggan, Law’s Room materialized into existence. In sharper clarity than when he was using Observation Haki, his awareness of his surroundings intensified. Not even a single square inch was outside of his awareness. Drawing Kikoku back, he wordlessly coated the blade with an energy field – the awakened powers of his Devil Fruit.

Against Luppi, he had failed to pierce through his foe’s Reiatsu until he had properly made use of his awakened powers, combined with the Haki Bloom he experienced from being pushed to his limits in battle. Against Starrk, he had managed to teleport him at first, when Starrk had been off guard, but in a direct confrontation in which his energy had intensified, Law had found him strictly immovable. This was a lapse that he knew he could not afford against Baraggan, who could kill him with a single good hit with Respira. Thankfully, with Itachi’s intel, he had an idea of how to defeat his foe.

“Puncture Wille!”

As he had against Luppi before, Law wasted no time going for the kill. Unlike Starrk, he understood Baraggan’s abilities and knew he could not afford to hesitate. With a bang!, his sword expanded in length, piercing directly toward Baraggan, but instantly Respira drove inward and slammed into the length of the blade. With his Scan, Law could immediately tell that even in spite of the spatial distortions he had placed around the sword, Baraggan’s Respira had turned it to ash on contact.

Instantly, Law retracted the sword, its length shrinking before Respira’s decay effect could travel along it to strike him. Sliding his hand along the flat of the blade, he warped the dimensions of the sword to repair the damage that Respira had caused.

Holding Gran Caída out to the side, Baraggan began spinning his axe in a propeller motion. Slow at first, and then faster and faster until a tornado of Respira  whirled into existence. With a roar, Baraggan swung the axe up, and the tornado was hurled forward. Debris all around was hurled from the ground and sucked into the twister, where it immediately disintegrated. Instantly, Law drove Kikoku into the ground and locked his grip tightly to it by forcing his fingers inward with his powers. Raising his other hand, he extended two fingers toward the oncoming tornado and concentrated.

“Drehen!”

Swirling his fingers around in a circular pattern, Law ripped the air in the vicinity into a frenzy. Though he wasn’t certain, it seemed logical to him that wind currents wouldn’t be aged to nothing by Respira. Unlike chemicals or physical substances, air molecules didn’t have a half-life, and could only be broken down by specific stimuli. Concentrating, Law spun a counter-wind around the outer edge of the Respira tornado.

Within moments, his efforts bore fruit. The twister slowly rippled, becoming jerkier and more unstable – good. Until finally it exploded outward, the energy bursting in every direction – not good. With a grunt of effort, Law ripped Kikoku from the ground and swung upward. The air in front of him split in half, and the incoming wave of Respira split with it, blasting to either side of Law and striking the ground on either side of him, eating it away.

Across from Law, Baraggan wasted no time mounting another attack. With the screech of a Hollow, he raised his axe to the sky.

“Enjambre!”

The ground around him split open, and Respira energy seeped out from the cracks like smoke, before congealing into black, skeletal figures. As dozens of Hollows rose to join the throng, they let out unholy shrieks, which soon blended together in a grand choir of despair.

Wasting no time, Law thrusted his blade out.

“Jinkaku Ishoku Shujutsu!”

The attack was one of the more unusual in Law’s arsenal. While his Shambles technique could swap the location of objects in space, this one could swap souls, transferring them between targets. If he could use it on the small army that was amassing, he could confuse them or potentially even turn them to his side.

Immediately, however, it was clear to him that this would not be effective. Though the skeletal figures appeared alive, he could feel no soul in the depths of their being. Nothing to dissuade, nothing to manipulate. They were pure Respira.

Baraggan chuckled darkly. “Nothing you do can halt this army’s march, boy. Old age comes for everyone just the same.”

Changing tack, Law swung his sword around and grinned.

“Not for me, jackass.”

With a swing of his sword, Law carved through ten of the creatures, and they split into two, then four, then eight. In a flurry of movements, Law separated the bodies of every soldier in his vicinity as they charged toward him, none of them managing to get anywhere close to him.

“Did you forget that I can cut through your Respira? As long as I don’t let it touch my sword, you can’t age space.” Mentally, Law felt a brief flash of relief at facing opponents that for once, his power worked on normally. Between these irritating Espada fights, he had sorely missed having free reign over his opponents’ bodies at all times.

Baraggan growled. “Insolent child. Let’s see you cut through a thousand!” Raising Gran Caída, dozens more creatures ripped from the ground and charged in to meet Law’s attacks head-on.

—

Flashes of blue and red shimmered across the buildings on the north end of the city. Ceros and Balas filled the air as Starrk alternated effortlessly between the two attacks, blasts hammering away at the Yata Mirror. Of course, they were unable to pierce the perfect defense, but Itachi could tell that this wasn’t Starrk’s aim. By hammering away at the mirror at all times, he could ricochet his shots into other portions of the Susanoo, and Itachi wouldn’t be able to move the mirror to block.

It was a good strategy, he had to admit. If the blasts were allowed to strike the Susanoo continuously for any meaningful period of time, they would certainly eat through its many-layered defense and strike the fragile shinobi at the center. Fortunately, Itachi had no need to stand still and let them do that.

The Sharingan was a truly fearsome weapon. With its incredible perception, the Ceros appeared to move at a snail’s pace, and while the Balas were notably faster they weren’t outside of Itachi’s ability to track with his eyes. To him, shots that would appear simultaneous to anyone else had a noticeable gap between them. A gap that he could take advantage of.

Blood gushed freely from his right eye as it flicked furiously between each shot that Starrk fired. Instantly, each beam of light or blast of concussive force was burned out of the air by Amaterasu. The black flame ate everything in its path, and could eat through Starrk’s spiritual energy fast enough to deflect most of the shots before they could reach him. Those he missed, the Susanoo could take and regenerate from.

Even still, if he kept up the war of attrition, Itachi could already tell that this was his match to lose. 

He felt a dull throb in both his eyes, an ache in his lungs and a pain in his chest that was growing sharper by the second. The energy that filled the arena had staved it off for longer than he normally would have been able to hold out for, but there was no mistaking the symptoms of the illness that had wracked Itachi’s body up to his death. Three prolonged fights with his Susanoo, extended use of both Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi… it was a miracle that Itachi was still standing.

Starrk, on the other hand, only seemed to be getting sharper and stronger. As Itachi found himself missing more and more shots, it wasn’t just his own pain that was responsible – the Primera Espada was only getting faster, and his Reiatsu stronger. Perhaps it was his vast, repressed potential, or perhaps it was the mysterious growth that the arena inspired in all of them, but whatever the reason, Starrk’s power was swelling, and that did not appear to be slowing down any time soon.

Itachi grimaced, and raised a finger, pointing directly at Starrk. The Arrancar paused, momentarily on-guard, but when nothing happened he fired another shot that slammed into the Yata Mirror. At high speed, Itachi dove forward with the Susanoo, blitzing through Starrk’s shots with the large avatar’s deceptive speed. Still, as the Totsuka Blade shimmered into existence, reformed from its earlier destruction, and Itachi brought it down in a slashing motion…

“Tsk, tsk.” With a brief burst of Sonído, Starrk had leapt above the Totsuka Blade as it slammed down, and now stood perched atop its blade, examining his guns nonchalantly. “This thing is strong, but its speed is nothing special.”

Firing one of his guns downward, he blasted through the Totsuka Blade, cracking it in half and launching himself up into the air. Flipping head over heel, he swung his foot down, and his heel slammed into the helmet-covered head of the Susanoo, which cracked clean in half under the force. Pointing both his guns downward, he blasted dozens of shots through the hole in the Susanoo’s head, each one blowing a hole clean through Itachi’s body.

Before Starrk could even mistake this for a killing blow, however, Itachi’s body split apart into crows, and the Susanoo shattered like glass. As Starrk landed in a crouch midair, shimmering copies of Itachi materialized into existence all around him. Starrk’s face twisted into a frown, and he blasted through each of them one-by-one in an instant, but as each Itachi vanished like a mirage, another one took its place.

Itachi’s dark chuckle filled the air.

‘An illusion.’ Starrk twitched. ‘Damn.’

He closed his eyes. For all his strength, the boy was a bad matchup for him, there was no way around it. He knew from experience with Aizen’s Kyōka Suigetsu that he was no good with illusions. If an opponent could stop him from aiming properly… well, he was as good as useless. Even the world’s best gun wouldn’t be good for anything if it couldn’t hit anything.

“……ar…”

Well, he’d had a good run of it. He had even tried tapping into his deeper strength, though he hadn’t quite been able to push himself to go all the way with it.

“…tark…”

He hoped that his allies wouldn’t be too disappointed. For as much as everyone struggled to get along, the Espada had become like family to him. This extra time he had gotten to spend with them all had been a priceless-

“STARRK!”

His eyes shot open, and all of a sudden he found himself back in his mindscape. And floating in front of him…

“L…Lilynette?! How…?”

The small girl’s astral form shimmered a faint green color. Whatever Itachi had done to bury her in his psyche seemed to have abated, as her eyes had shifted back to their normal light pink.

…And she was currently glaring at him.

“I’ve been trying to break free this whole time, and then I get back and the first thing I hear is you thinking about giving up without thinking about me even a little bit?! Do I need to kick your ass, jerk?!”

He blinked, and in annoyance opened his mouth to retort, but any counterargument died in his throat as he registered Lilynette’s expression. Her eyes swam with tears, and she gazed at him as though she might shatter into nothing any second.

“You always do this… you’re always so quick to give up, so willing to die… are you really… that unhappy with our life…?”

For a moment, Starrk stood rooted in place, stunned by the question. Then, wordlessly, he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around his other half. She sniffled into his chest as he spoke.

“Never,” he spoke softly. “I get caught up in my own head sometimes. It can be hard to keep going, and I lose sight of what I have. I’m a big idiot, y’know.”

Her face pressed into his chest, Lilynette made a muffled sound that might have been a “yeah.” Starrk rubbed her head soothingly, waiting patiently. Finally, his partner extricated herself from him, and wiped her eyes furiously. Starrk let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding.

“You broke out of his seal,” he said. “Can you break me out of the illusion?”

It was a long shot. It had never worked against Aizen. But Lilynette nodded.

“I think so. The one on you isn’t too strong. I think he’s tired.”

Starrk squared his shoulders. He could do this. He would win this.

No.

They would win this.

The area around them dissolved, and Starrk exploded back into reality. His vision cleared, the illusion crumbled away like glass, and a distance ahead of him, Itachi staggered, raising his arms to shield his face as Reiatsu battered him, pushing him back along the water’s surface.

“W-What…?! Ugh…!”

Starrk’s Reiatsu swelled. For the first time in years, he was nearing the levels that he had possessed before he first split from Lilynette, wandering the dunes of Hueco Mundo alone. The power that had inspired Aizen to name him the Primera Espada.

Around Itachi’s feet, steam began to waft from the water, the lake itself boiling under sheer spiritual pressure. In the distance, buildings quaked, as the entire Rain Village threatened to collapse into nothing under the sheer gravity that Starrk was emitting.

On the far end of the city, the other two Espada and their opponents felt the pressure slam down into them. Harribel’s water constructs lost cohesion, and Baraggan’s Respira dissipated into the air. Pain staggered, anchoring his feet down to the ground with his gravity manipulation, and Law went down to one knee with a gasp.

‘Wha… Is that the gunman?’ Law struggled to drag himself to his feet. ‘What the hell is this aura…?!’

Baraggan’s grip tightened around Gran Caída. ‘Feh. So the Hollow who surpasses the King reemerges…’

Harribel gritted her teeth. ‘That pressure… even now, your strength is still…’

Across from her, Pain was silent. At the heart of the village, Nagato gasped as his body spasmed, and blood violently sputtered from his mouth. ‘Ugh… no, not yet. I can’t give out yet…!’

Back on the battleground, the Deva Path of Pain leapt into the air, his cloak billowing up as he rose into the sky, arms outstretched.

“It’s time to put an end to this…” His eyes gleamed as he stared down at the Rain Village, hands raised to the sky above. “Now… this world shall know Pain.”

Itachi, only meters from Starrk, barely managed to remain standing under the onslaught. As he struggled to remain in place, the blood red pigment seemed to slowly drain from his eyes, the Sharingan literally melting away under Starrk’s spiritual pressure as it pushed the chakra from Itachi’s body.

‘No…!’

Forcing chakra back into his eyes, Itachi’s Sharingan reactivated, but he could feel himself draining much faster than usual. In front of him, Starrk whipped a gun up to eye level, pointing it directly at him.

“Bang.”

Starrk pulled the trigger. Itachi willed his Susanoo to activate, and the Yata Mirror materialized in front of him. The Cero struck it dead center.

And the Yata Mirror shattered into a thousand pieces.

Itachi’s eyes widened.

Starrk pulled the trigger again.

And then everything turned upside down.

—

“…hahaha…”

…

“…zehahahaha…”

…

“ZEHAHAHAHA!”

Across Marineford, Blackbeard’s cackle rang out. Violent waves crashed against the shore of the island, stirred up by the battle that had occurred. The sky swirled with darkness, and rubble rained down, cracks having spread across every corner of the Warlords’ home base. Standing victorious, the Emperor of the Sea gazed down at the foe that had fought so valiantly.

Boa panted heavily from where she lay collapsed on the ground. A trickle of blood ran down her forehead. Some distance away, Salome lay motionless, his body bent at an odd angle. His eyes stared blankly at nothing, for he had done everything to defend his mother and paid the price. Slumped against the wall in the distance, a smear of her blood across the white concrete behind her, Konan lay upright but out cold, her hair disturbed from its bun and hanging unkempt around her face.

As Boa struggled to sit up, to pull herself to her feet, Blackbeard approached her, and placed his foot on her chest before pressing downward, forcing her back to the ground. Darkness oozed from his foot and blanketed her body, and she could feel her strength drain from her in an instant.

“That’s twice now, isn’t it?” Blackbeard leered down at her, a laugh rumbling in his chest. “I’ll admit, it was brave of you to try again! But I’ve leveled up since last time. You didn’t have a chance.”

Behind him, a strange black substance oozed up from the ground, congealing into a glob upon which a face materialized.

“Sire,” Black Zetsu growled as Blackbeard turned to listen to him. “The invasion has proceeded almost exactly as you had expected.”

“Of course it has. My Haki can see everything.”

“Indubitably. But there is one unexpected surprise. Law has joined the battle against the Espada.”

“Oh?” Blackbeard’s eyes widened. “Law, really…? Why’d he do something like that…?”

“It seems he’s been ordered by Mihawk.”

“Ahhhh,” Blackbeard nodded. “Of course. That meddlesome bastard is trouble. But even so, this might be the opportunity we’ve been waiting for. You know what to do, right?”

“But of course, sire.”

“Then get to it.”

Without another word, Black Zetsu sank back into the ground and was gone. Blackbeard turned his gaze down toward Boa, who had been listening to their conversation intently.

“Sorry about that,” Blackbeard said with a grin. “You weren’t exactly supposed to hear all that, but I suppose there’s nothing you can do about it. Still… I probably oughta kill you, just to be safe.”

Suddenly, a flash of awareness crossed his eyes. He blinked, looking startled, as his gaze flickered toward the north sea. In the distance, through the air, a black dot had appeared on the horizon, and was getting closer by the second.

“Damn…” Blackbeard sighed, and then flashed Boa a grin. “Seems like we’ll have to take a rain check.”

As the black dot in the distance got closer, Blackbeard raised his left fist, and a bubble of energy formed around it. Drawing his fist across the center of his body, the pirate struck a similar pose to the one that his “father” Whitebeard always took when using this technique. He grinned. 

“Let’s rock!”

He swung his fist outward to meet the figure that soared in, and the bubble slammed into the target’s Haki-coated fist with the force of a bomb. Cracks spread out from their location, rippling across Marineford as the strongest Devil Fruit clashed violently against shimmering Armament Haki. And then, Blackbeard was sent skidding, launched from where he stood with his foot on Boa’s chest. Skidding backward along the pavement, Blackbeard remained nonetheless unhurt, but rather quite amused.

Standing over Boa, his fist quivering and crackling from the strain of having clashed with Blackbeard, Bartholomew Kuma stood, his gaze fixed squarely on the Emperor of the Sea.

“Kuma!” Blackbeard greeted merrily, as if the large man hadn’t just attacked him. “I had been wondering where you had gone! I’m glad to know you survived this long!”

“Save the pleasantries, Teach,” Kuma said, his voice soft but firm. “I have no interest in them.”

“Come now! Is that a way to speak to your ally? Don’t forget who saved you from that puppet fellow!”

“Doflamingo is dead,” Kuma replied. “My agreement was with him alone. I am not your servant, Teach.”

“Ouch! Come on now, would working with me really be that bad?”

Kuma ignored him, turning his gaze down to Boa. “Can you stand?” he asked quietly.

“I can.”

“Good. I’ll get you out of here. My fruit can send you north. It is surely not safe here.”

“Oi!” Blackbeard interjected. “Don’t I get a say in this?”

“You do not.”

“I’d say I do. I need that girl dead.”

Kuma’s gaze flickered toward the unconscious Konan, propped against the far wall.

“Will that girl there not sate your bloodlust?”

“Bloodlust? Jeez, you have an awfully bad picture of me. It’s not like I just kill people for fun.” Teach shook his head, grinning. “Hancock is one of the only threats to me in this arena. Her Devil Fruit is too dangerous. The vision’s hazy, but I’ve seen a future… Well, the point is, I’ve been waiting until she was mostly alone!” He grinned. “So that I could take it, and use it for myself!”

Kuma blinked. “The Mero Mero no Mi requires the user to be attractive. I have a hard time imagining that you could use it in any effective capacity.”

“Ouch! Harsh, but true! The world just doesn’t appreciate how handsome I am! Zehahahaha!”

“…”

“In all seriousness,” Blackbeard continued. “I have Moria’s fruit. I don’t need to take Hancock’s for myself, I can just make her use it for me after she’s dead. Really, it will hardly be any different than it is now!”

“You have only convinced me even further that you cannot be allowed to do what you want.”

“Come on! What does a guy have to say?”

As Kuma had moved to position himself in between Blackbeard and Boa, the latter had slowly managed to pull herself to her feet. Under her breath, just loud enough for Kuma to hear, she murmured.

“We won’t be able to beat him, even together.”

Kuma replied equally softly. “I can blast us to the other side of the arena. Get ready…”

“Am I interrupting?”

All three Warlords jumped at the unexpected voice, and turned toward it. Despite all three of them being proficient users of Observation Haki, they hadn’t seen the man coming.

Sword at his side, Dracule Mihawk had arrived. Behind him, Buggy trailed, visibly trying to look as small as possible.

“Mihawk! So glad you could join us!” Blackbeard cried in greeting, though for the first time there was a hint of anxiety in his voice. He had very little to fear from Boa or Kuma, but Mihawk… he was another story. “I hope all is going… well?” His gaze found the large, bandaged sword on Mihawk’s back, and then the burn marks that now covered both his hands.

“They could be going better. What is this I hear about you intending to kill one of our strongest fighters, Teach?”

“Oh, you know…” Blackbeard shrugged. “Hate the sin, love the sinner, as they say!”

“Why don’t we have a conversation about this?” It was clear from Mihawk’s tone, and the way his grip tightened around Yoru that he didn’t intend for there to be much talking. 

“O-Orrrr… we could just agree to disagree?”

Mihawk flashed a glare at Buggy, and the clown wilted sharply, his mouth snapping closed. He made a zipping motion over his lips. Mihawk turned back to face Blackbeard.

“Kuma, take Hancock and Buggy. I’ll meet up with you later.”

“The Akatsuki girl…” Boa spoke up as Kuma moved to grab Buggy, and then placed a hand on her shoulder. Momentary concern flashed in her eyes.

“I’ll take care of it.” Mihawk said firmly.

Blackbeard watched the four of them, his expression inscrutable.

“You’re making a mistake, Mihawk. You don’t want an enemy like me.”

“After today, I won’t have an enemy like you.”

Mihawk cracked his neck, and then readied Yoru. Behind him, the other three Warlords vanished, launched off the island by Kuma’s Devil Fruit and leaving the two strongest Warlords to do battle in their wake.

—

It started from the center of the Rain Village. The ground warped, pressed downward by some tremendous force. Then, a shockwave rippled from the center, and exploded outward with overwhelming pressure. Pavement peeled away like paper. Buildings were ripped from their foundation. The rain itself was pushed outward, the droplets obliterated into nothing. All those fighting throughout the village – Harribel, Baraggan, Law, even Starrk and Itachi at the edge of the city – were bowled off their feet by the shockwave and the dust that it kicked up.

And in the center of it all, was one man, who called the name of the technique to the sky.

“Shinra Tensei!”

In an instant, the Rain Village had been consumed by Pain’s Chaotic Shinra Tensei. Nearly none of the village’s buildings remained standing as dust rained down; the central tower alone still stood, though it wobbled in place, as its lower stories had been eradicated, and the upper half of the building had collapsed down to the ground, now the only portion that remained intact.

In the heart of the tower, Nagato hacked violently, blood and saliva spewing from his mouth with every cough. Using such a powerful Shinra Tensei was already risky; doing it while he was within the blast radius was practically suicidal.

Still, the top half of the tower had held. He was alive.

In the center of the crater, covered in dust and her own blood, Harribel lay. As she had been nearest to Pain when the attack had initiated, she was the one who had taken the brunt of the force. Vaguely, she registered pain across her entire body, but it was dull, muted. She could tell she was hurt, but couldn’t tell where she was hurt.

That was usually bad.

Some distance south, Baraggan groaned as he pulled himself from under a pile of rubble. Propping himself up with Gran Caída, he staggered. Part of his skull had broken off from the force of the blast, and several of his ribs were missing. Across from him, Law sank down to one knee, wheezing as the Curtain that he had created for himself dissipated. Out of everyone, he seemed to have taken the blast the best, though if it had hit him he very likely would have died.

To the far north, Starrk winced as he pulled himself up, staggering slightly. He felt a throbbing pain in his right arm, and as he glanced down at it, he realized with a start that below the elbow, there was nothing there.

“…Oh.”

He staggered. Blood gushed freely from his stump, and he felt a wave of dizziness.

He had only one arm left.

Only one gun left.

“L-Lilynette, are you there?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m alright.” Her voice was faint, shaken, but Starrk felt a wave of relief. He hadn’t been sure what would happen if one of his guns were destroyed. “We’re gonna be firing at half strength from now on. But we’ll live.”

Starrk clenched his teeth and reached up, squeezing the end of his arm and ignoring the flare of pain. Concentrating, he forced his skin to harden with Hierro, and when he removed his hand, the bleeding had stopped.

A hacking cough split the air. Some distance away, as the dust cleared, Itachi’s shimmering Susanoo came into vision. Though the Yata Mirror had been destroyed, it appeared to have absorbed the blast fairly well. Even so, Itachi didn’t look well. As he coughed into his hand, blood gurgled up from his mouth and stained the sides of his chin. He staggered, clutching his chest, the Susanoo dissipated, and he sank to the ground.

In a flash, Itachi vanished. Starrk blinked, then understood.

‘The teleporter.’

Boosting into the air with Sonído, he dashed south toward the heart of the massive crater that had replaced the city. If their foes were going to reconvene, then the Espada needed to as well.

Itachi swayed upon rematerializing. Beside him, Law looked alarmed as Itachi collapsed against him, struggling to keep himself standing.

“The hell? What’s the matter with you?”

“I-I-It’s… nothing…” Itachi wheezed. Law frowned.

“Bullshit.”

Reaching out, he pressed his palm against Itachi’s chest and Scanned his body with the power of the Ope Ope no Mi. After a moment, Law’s eyes shot open, his expression morphing into one of shock.

“No way… you’ve been fighting like this? Are you suicidal?!”

“…It’s nothing…” Itachi repeated, weaker this time.

“You have microscopic polyangiitis.” Law snapped. Though he still wasn’t sure how to feel about his ‘ally,’ his instincts as a doctor took over. “It’s an auto-immune disorder – the antibodies in your body are attacking your blood vessels, making them damaged and inflamed. Severe alveolar hemorrhages, scleritis, kidney damage… you shouldn’t even be walking with symptoms that have advanced this far!”

“I know,” Itachi rasped, and Law paused. Itachi swallowed. “I know. But I can’t… stop…”

Law stared at him for a moment, and then let out a long, aggrieved sigh. For as much as he hated to admit it, he knew the other man wasn’t wrong. They needed him. 

Keeping his hand pressed to Itachi’s chest. Law concentrated. With every ounce of skill that he possessed as the Surgeon of Death, he worked fast to restructure the inside of Itachi’s body. Blood vessels repaired, strengthened. Heart, lungs, kidneys, nerves… as many as he could, one at a time, restored in an instant as if by magic.

But it wasn’t magic. Not really.

Itachi gasped. He blinked sharply as his vision cleared up.

“Wha-?”

“I’ve treated your symptoms,” Law said with a sigh as he removed his hand and opened his eyes. “It’s a rush job, and it’s not a cure, but I’ve pushed the illness back a bit. I’ve also done my best to mimic the effects of corticosteroids and immunosuppressants, which should buy you a bit more time as well. If I had more time, I could probably cure it… but we’re on the clock.”

Itachi was silent as he absorbed the explanation. Finally, he gave a small nod. “…Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. I still don’t like you.”

Idly, Law wondered if this was what Mihawk had sent him for. He had said that Law specifically needed to be here, to avoid a worst-case scenario. Had this been it…?

He had no time to think about it, as Pain touched down beside them. His gaze flickered between the two of them, curiously. Some distance away, Starrk touched down, pistol clutched in his one good hand, and Baraggan staggered to his feet and stood next to them. Through the dust, a bloodied and battered Harribel stepped as well, joining her comrades.

“Everything alright with you, boss?” Starrk side-eyed Harribel, taking note of her injuries. Harribel glanced back at him and eyed his missing arm. When she spoke, her voce was tired and raspy.

“Still in… one piece…”

Starrk frowned, wilting slightly. “That’s mean. I was just asking.”

“You’re both children…” Baraggan muttered, hefting his axe up atop his shoulder.

Harribel’s eye twitched. These two were so very difficult…

“No one will die. I’ll make sure of it.” Her own words echoed in her head again. She pressed her lips together.

This needed to end now. As she stepped forward, the other two Espada turned their gaze toward the enemies that stood across from them. Three against three, the two sides faced each other, exhausted and wounded to varying extents. Harribel was the one who broke the silence.

“Pain… the one who controls him… is in that tower…” she ground out. “I will… deal with him…”

It was to Starrk and Baraggan that she was speaking, but Itachi perked up.

‘The one who controls Pain…?’

“I cannot use Shinra Tensei again for some time,” Pain spoke quietly, so that only Itachi and Law could hear, and they both tensed. “If you want my help with this fight, you will need to protect me.”

He didn’t like sharing his weaknesses like this, but it was a matter of urgency in this case. He could not afford to let the Deva Path be defeated.

Across from them, Harribel drew Tiburón. Her own blood dripped down its blade.

“I will consume you.”

Her blood twisted around the sword, manipulated in the same manner that Harribel controlled water, and then erupted upward like a geyser. Starrk and Baraggan both staggered back, startled. But it was a different sensation that struck the two Akatsuki and Warlord that her words were directed toward.

Bloodlust.

And power.

Before their eyes, the geyser of blood that had consumed Harribel seemed to shrink inward, absorbed back down toward where she had stood, as all of the Reiatsu that had swelled up crackled outward, filling the space with just as much intensity as Starrk had shown earlier.

Shing!

A blade cut clean through the veil of blood that surrounded Harribel, and it split down the middle. There Harribel stood, but her appearance had changed dramatically.

Her hair had become longer and more unruly, stretching down past her shoulder blades, and the crown that had sat atop her head now floated in the air a few inches above. It too had transformed, the curved edges having become rigid and jagged, pointing directly up in a manner that more closely resembled Baraggan’s crown. This one, however, appeared to be made of pure bone.

Her eyes, previously green with white sclera, had changed dramatically, now a black slit in the center of murky grey. On either side of her neck, long gash-like markings that resembled gills had been etched, and her teeth had become sharper. Her clothing, already scant for the sake of speed and dynamic movement, appeared to have become grafted into her body, and spot patterning adorned her bare skin – like that of a shark.

Perhaps most striking was the transformation of Tiburón. The giant, shark-toothed pata had completely changed shape, into a mighty, golden trident, the three prongs of which appeared to be carved out of bone.

“Ohhh!” Starrk chirped, a grin spreading across his face. For once, Baraggan looked alarmed. 

Harribel looked down at her arms, and then the trident in her hand. This was…

“Segunda Etapa,” Itachi muttered, grimly. “Just like Ulquiorra.”

“You’ve seen this before?” Law asked, not taking his eyes off Harribel.

“I have, and it’s not good news. We should probably-”

Shink!

It happened so quickly that neither of them had a chance to respond. Harribel’s trident ripped through the air between Itachi and Law, and buried itself in the Deva Path’s chest. Pain staggered, his face going slack as shock registered in his expression. A moment later, so fast that her movements were imperceptible, Harribel had crossed the distance and seized the hilt of her trident. From its prongs, spikes of blood blasted forth and ripped out of the Deva Path’s back. With one movement, she pulled Pain inward, unhinged her jaw, and sank rows of shark teeth into his face, ripping it off in a shower of blood and metal studs.

Pain’s now-faceless corpse toppled. On either side of Harribel, Itachi and Law stood frozen in shock. Chilled to the bone by Pain’s fate, and the casualness with which Harribel had performed the gruesome act. Turning, she paid them no mind as she glanced over her shoulder at Starrk and Baraggan. She spat out the wad of flesh from her mouth.

“Clean things up here,” she ordered. “I need to kill Pain’s puppeteer, before this form expires.”

“Aye, aye!” Starrk replied.

Baraggan was silent. “…fine.”

In a flash, Harribel vanished. Silence descended on the remaining four. Slowly, they turned to face each other. After a moment, Starrk broke the silence.

“Well that just happened.”

—

Bang!

In a plume of dust, the door to what remained of the central tower was slammed off of its hinges, the metal frame crumpled like paper as it skidded along the floor. In the dim light of his chambers, Nagato’s gaze rose to meet the intruder.

“Harribel,” he rasped, his voice softer and higher than Pain’s. “Nice to finally meet you face-to-face.”

Harribel entered the room, trident in hand as she fearlessly approached the Akatsuki’s leader. He made no effort to halt her approach. Several meters away from him, close enough to kill him if she wanted, Harribel halted. Her gaze trailed across the machine that held his lower half, the Black Receivers stabbed into his back, and his horribly emaciated frame. She had caught a glimpse of him before, but…

“You’re ill.”

“You’re observant.”

Harribel frowned.

“Is that why you fight with those Pain bodies?”

“Why else?” Nagato chuckled humorlessly. “What, were you expecting a climactic final battle, where you could kill me without having to feel bad about it? Reality is rarely so magnanimous.”

Harribel didn’t respond.

“Well? What are you waiting for? Finish it, already.”

“You aren’t going to ask me to stop? To plead for your life?”

“I’m not so naive. You might think you’re one of the good Hollows, but you were still born from the evil of humanity. And I’ve seen how deep that evil runs. You won’t spare me if it would mean defeat for your team.”

Harribel looked down at the trident in her hand, and then up at Nagato. Despite the calm words, his expression looked unbelievably bitter. It was the face of a man who had been beaten down by the world and could only wait for the next punch.

“Do it. Prove how much of a hypocrite you are.”

Harribel closed her eyes. He was manipulating her. She had to kill him, or else the war could never end. It didn’t matter if he could defend himself; he was the enemy and he needed to be eliminated. In fact, he had been able to defend himself, as Pain, and he had lost. He wouldn’t have spared her. Rationally speaking, there was no reason to hesitate. And yet…

Harribel hung her head. A world without sacrifice…

She couldn’t do it.

…

“I’m sorry.”

She couldn’t live up to her own ideals.

In one fluid motion, she lifted her trident and drove it forward. It pierced clean through Nagato’s chest with no resistance. His eyes went wide and blood spilled from his mouth. Lightly, he sputtered. Harribel pushed the trident in further.

“ATTENTION ALL PARTICIPANTS! ONE OF THE AKATSUKI HAVE DIED! FIVE REMAIN!”

Harribel released the trident’s hilt and stepped backward. The weight of what she had done hit her. She bowed her head, looking anywhere but at the man before her. But then…

“…N…No…”

Her eyes snapped open and her head shot up. Nagato was trembling, very much alive, blood dripping from his mouth. His eyes were staring off into the distance, at something out of Harribel’s sight. It was he that had spoken.

“No, no…”

What was this? Harribel struggled to reorient herself to the situation. If Nagato hadn’t died yet, then who…?

A guttural snarl ripped from Nagato’s throat. With sudden vitality that seemed impossible given his frame, he ripped a hand free from his restraints and seized the shaft of the trident protruding from his chest. For a moment, Harribel thought that he meant to rip it out and surely kill himself, but a moment later she realized that she was entirely mistaken. Before her eyes, the muscles and skin that clung so tightly to Nagato’s bones swelled out, his body mass growing by the second. His gaunt cheeks ballooned outward, and his sallow red hair seemed to glow a brighter shade of scarlet.

He was absorbing Reiryoku from the trident. Using it to revitalize himself. And he was getting stronger by the second.

“No!”

Harribel lunged forward and seized the trident, ripping it from the man’s chest. But the damage had been done. With the Hollow power that flowed into his body, Nagato’s wounds shrank and then vanished, and with new strength he ripped himself free from his restraints. The Black Receivers exploded out of his back as though they were shot from a harpoon launcher, impaling themselves into the surrounding walls.

As Nagato stood to face her, he raised a hand. His face was etched with pure, cold fury and hatred.

“Shinra Tensei!”

All around them, the tower exploded outward, its fragments blasted out beyond the edge of the city-sized crater. Harribel herself was once again thrown back, skidding along the ground. The attack Nagato had just launched, she registered, had been even stronger than the massive one that the Deva Path had unleashed previously. 

Some distance away from her, Nagato levitated to the ground, and with inhuman speed dashed forward, his bare feet a blur against the ground. As he rushed in, he formed hand signs, and with several massive plumes of smoke, three giant animals materialized behind him: a dog, a rhino, and an ox.

Recovering, Harribel spun her trident, and a trail of shimmering blood followed it as she drew it back like a spear. Thrusting it forward, she met Nagato’s charge head-on.

—

The foliage in the Forest of Death was thick. In every direction, shadows seemed to hug the trees, the leaves rustling in the wind like soft whispers. It was hard to explain, but the area felt almost evil.

“YEOWCH!”

Buggy’s shriek split the air, and his hand detached from his wrist to smack his shoulder, crushing whatever insect had decided to use it as a drinking fountain. Colorful swear words filled the air as Buggy furiously scratched the spot where he’d been bitten.

“Come on, Kuma, didja have to dump us off in the middle of the jungle? I don’t do great with mosquitoes, I’m allergic!”

Ahead of Buggy, Boa brushed some vines aside to examine the surface of a nearby tree, which seemed to have had chunks carved out of it by some large-toothed animal. As her gaze passed over the soil nearby, which was patterned with countless animal tracks, she only caught part of Kuma’s response.

“-didn’t have time to be picky about my destination. Blackbeard plans to sink Marineford, and any Devil Fruit users who stayed would have drowned. His strength may very well be a challenge for Mihawk by now. He is not a foe to be trifled with.”

“Trifle? What do trifles have to do with this? I hate mushrooms!”

“…I said trifle. Not truffles.”

“Bah! I don’t care how you pronounce it, I don’t like ‘em!”

“Boys,” Boa cut in. “I don’t mean to alarm you, but we’re being watched.”

Immediately, Kuma’s eyes flashed and began scanning their surroundings, and Buggy yelped, jumping to hide behind the bear-man’s enormous frame. Focusing her Observation Haki, Boa called out.

“Show yourself. I know you’re watching us!”

Softly, a hissing sound filled the clearing. From the ground, dozens of snakes rose, slithering inward and curling around each other into a large mound, before parting. From the mound, a man emerged.

“My, my,” Orochimaru simpered. “I’m impressed. How could you see through my camouflage jutsu?”

“It was a bluff,” Boa replied, unintimidated by the disturbing display. “There are signs of large creatures all over the place, and yet no animals in sight. I have lived in the wilderness my whole life, I know what it looks like when an area has cleared out. So I took a guess, and you fell for it.”

If Orochimaru was in any way bothered by the deception, he didn’t show it.

“Well now, it seems I’ve been tricked. How very unfortunate for me.”

“Name yourself.”

“Orochimaru. And you’re Boa Hancock, Bartholomew Kuma, and…” his gaze landed on Buggy, who was cautiously peeking out from behind Kuma’s back. “…oh my. The genius jester, Buggy the Clown. It’s an honor to make your acquaintance.”

“You are aware of us?” Kuma inquired.

“My snakes have been gathering intelligence all across the arena. They’re remarkably intelligent, and Blackbeard’s little veil didn’t do much to dissuade them from bringing me the information I wanted.”

Boa started. ‘Blackbeard was responsible for the veil?’

Orochimaru noticed the flicker of surprise, and the rapid attempt to hide it.

“Oh, you don’t need to keep a poker face for me, dear. I know that Blackbeard isn’t working with the rest of you, so there’s no point in trying to cover it up.” He smiled pleasantly. Though he didn’t verbalize it, he had implanted many of his snakes with jutsu that he had learned from studying the history of the Yamanaka Clan. They could read minds and communicate with him telepathically. Not even his foes’ deepest, darkest secrets were truly hidden from him. “It’s truly remarkable just how much I’ve managed to learn about all of you… I find you all so very interesting.”

Though his tone wasn’t threatening, there was a glint in his eyes, just the slightest bit of malice. And he still hadn’t taken his gaze off of Boa. Kuma took a step forward, raising his palms. Though he didn’t know anything of Orochimaru, he could tell the man was dangerous, and was prepared to banish him across the arena. However, as he moved forward, Boa raised an arm and blocked him from advancing. She didn’t take her eyes off of Orochimaru either.

Orochimaru reached one hand up to his face, and from his mouth he regurgitated the hilt of his sword. Gripping the Kusanagi Blade, he slowly extricated it from his own throat, and swung it up into a casual swordfighting stance.

“Apologies,” he said, though his tone didn’t sound very sorry. “But I’ll have to kill all of you.”

Before he could move a muscle, however, a ripple of energy burst from Boa’s body and washed over the entire clearing. All around Orochimaru, the snakes that writhed went slack. Some plummeted from the trees above, landing on the ground with an unceremonious plop. The shinobi glanced around in surprise at his suddenly-unconscious army of serpents. 

“I don’t know who you think you’re threatening,” Boa said, her voice low and calm, “but you picked the wrong targets.” She raised a hand to her lips, and blew a kiss, a small pink heart puffing from her lips and fading into the air. “Now be a dear and turn around before doing something you regret.”

—

In the crater that was once the Rain Village, Itachi and Law circled Starrk and Baraggan, attacking them unrelentingly from opposite sides. The two Espada stood back to back in the center, Starrk’s gunshots firing in one direction and waves of Respira in the other. With each swing of Kikoku, Law carved Ceros and Respira waves into pieces in the air, while Itachi blasted the two Espada with searing shots of Amaterasu, inflicting scorching burns in the split second before they suppressed the flames with their Reiatsu.

“Any bright ideas?” Starrk called over to Baraggan. Baraggan ignored him and hurled another wave of Respira that missed Itachi entirely. “I take it that’s a no?”

“Talk less.” Baraggan growled. Starrk rolled his eyes. In his mind, Lilynette blew a raspberry at Baraggan.

Itachi made eye contact with Law from across the battlefield. In a flash, Itachi’s voice – or rather, a Genjutsu version of it – reverberated in Law’s mind.

“Can you cut off Baraggan’s limbs?”

Law winced. He hadn’t been looking forward to this question.

“I’ve been trying, but his damn Reiatsu is too strong. Can’t move him or cut him.”

“Hm. Three down, then. Two left. Cover me.”

The telepathic communication disconnected. Itachi skidded to a halt, his eyes closed in concentration. Even after Law had suppressed his illness, conjuring up enough chakra for bigger jutsu was still difficult. Ahead of him, Baraggan hurled an arrow of Respira toward Itachi, but in an instant Law teleported in front of him and spatially cleaved the arrow apart, deflecting it.

“Don’t order me around!” Law yelled, irritated.

“Move. Please.”

Law leapt to the side. Itachi’s eyes shot open, and blood trickled from his left eye.

“Tsukuyomi!”

Across from him, locked in his gaze, Baraggan froze. As the world fell away around them, the Segunda Espada found himself standing in the middle of an endless, black plain, the moon shining bright in the blood-red sky above.

As Baraggan glanced around in confusion, he suddenly cried out and staggered. Skin was regrowing over his skeletal body, muscles and sinews knitting together until Baraggan looked as he did normally, before releasing his Zanpakuto.

Shink!

He let out a snarling roar of pain as spikes pierced his wrists, and he was lifted up onto a giant cross. Below him, Itachi approached across the water’s surface.

“Let’s see you overcome this jutsu.” Itachi’s voice reverberated.

“Wh-…Where am I…?” Baraggan growled, and then howled as more blades pierced out through his chest and stomach.

“This is Tsukuyomi. A realm of my creation where I am god, and have absolute control over the passage of time. A day here is but an instant in real time, a year but a moment. You could live out your whole life before your friend even blinks, if I so desired.” As he spoke, more and more spikes ripped through Baraggan, and his blood began to pour down onto the dark ground below, staining it red.

“We’ll see how long you last before going mad. How much pain you can take. How long you try to resist before you sink into the darkness of the Mangekyo. I warn you: your Respira won’t work here, in this world of mine, where nothing ages and nothing grows.”

Itachi raised an arm to the sky, his fist seeming to close around the moon above. Like a comet pulled from orbit, the moon plummeted from the sky, engulfed in flames as it descended toward Baraggan. But before it could crash down, the Hollow King managed to let out a defiant roar.

“AND JUST WHO DECIDED THAT?!”

His flesh rippled, and melted away as Respira surged from his body, revealing the skeleton beneath once more. The cross that he had been pinned to crumbled to dust. The Respira blasted upward, and struck the illusory moon, which split in half and began to rapidly disintegrate as well. Itachi’s eyes widened.

‘Impossible! He’s decaying the Tsukuyomi?!’

“A day, a year, a lifetime… none of them are eternity, Itachi Uchiha!”

The illusion shattered, and Itachi staggered, his hand flying up to clutch his eye as it burned sharply. Beside him, Law glanced over, alarmed.

“What happened?!”

“No good…” Itachi groaned. “Four down.”

‘Only one left. Better make it count.’

Dragging his hand away from his face, Itachi’s Susanoo shimmered into existence around him. Standing next to him, Law reached out and put a hand on Itachi’s shoulder. As he did so, bright teal energy spread through Itachi’s body, and then outward to coat the outer shell of the Susanoo.

As it drew the Totsuka Blade, the energy field from Law’s K-Room spread up the length of the blade. On the side of the Susanoo, a single shard of glass gleamed brightly. Amplified by Law’s power, it stretched and distorted outward until the Yata Mirror had fully reformed.

As the rain overhead intensified and lightning crashed down, the battle raged on.

—

Even with all the new strength and speed that Segunda Etapa granted her, Harribel had to admit, Nagato was a fearsome opponent. Whereas the abilities of the Six Paths of Pain had been split between his many different puppet bodies, with all Six Paths eliminated and Nagato left to fight alone, he could wield all of them at once, with far greater efficacy than any of his Paths.

Case in point: as two mechanical arms sprouted from his shoulder, he fired a dozen missiles at Harribel, and she swatted them off to the side. An instant later, however, he used his gravity control to attract every missile in toward her once again, and they impacted faster than she could react. The giant beasts that he summoned, while easily dispatched, could easily be summoned again if destroyed, and were so large and destructive that they were hard to deal with. To make matters worse, it seemed Nagato shared their vision, as the Paths did, and so their presence made it considerably harder to sneak up on him.

But, Harribel quickly realized, there was no ability that was more of a problem for her than the one that absorbed energy, the Preta Path. 

At first, it hadn’t seemed too terribly difficult to combat. Her water attacks were easily absorbed, and seemed to make Nagato stronger, but that was a problem easily avoided by sticking to physical combat over her hydrokinesis. The real issue, she soon realized, was the rainfall.

From what she had surmised, Nagato had created the storm to keep track of everything within the Rain Village’s radius. When they had first arrived, she had sensed that it was imbued with his spirit energy, and she had used that to surmise the storm’s nature. As their fight had progressed to the fortress’ exterior, she had used the storm as a constant source of water, forming constructs out of it. She had the natural capacity to imbue all the moisture in her vicinity with her Reiryoku, and command it at will.

And therein lay the problem. Because she had commandeered Nagato’s storm with her own Reiryoku, her power hummed through every drop of water that poured from the sky. Meaning that every raindrop anywhere near Nagato made him stronger, absorbed into him through the power of the Preta Path.

It was almost elegant, how effective it was. Especially with the heightened output of Segunda Etapa, which Harribel was not yet accustomed to, she could not simply turn off her natural attunement to the liquid in her surroundings. Unless she made a great effort to suppress all of the Reiryoku emitting from her body altogether, she couldn’t stop the droplets from being turned into an unlimited energy supply for her opponent. To make matters worse, she was certain her new form wouldn’t last forever. She could already feel her body beginning to ache from exertion.

Across from her, Nagato clapped his hands together and began to concentrate. Harribel grimaced.

As Pain, he was powerful, but she could handle him. 

As Nagato, she wasn’t so sure.

—

Itachi brought the Totsuka Blade down again and again. Amplified by the power of Law’s K-Room, the already invincible weapon had become ten times as deadly, carving clean through space with every strike. Against such a blade, Respira and Cero alike were cleaved into fragments in midair and absorbed along the blade. In the rare event that an attack did get through, the K-Room amplified Yata Mirror could cancel it out and teleport it elsewhere.

Even still, Itachi knew that it wouldn’t be enough to defeat their foes. Law’s space cutting had already failed against both Starrk and Baraggan, and he was certain by now that the Totsuka Blade’s ability to seal the souls of those it pierced would be ineffective against beings as spiritually powerful as the Espada. Starrk was one thing. For as strong as he was, his power didn’t limit the number of ways that he could be approached in the first place.

No, it was Baraggan that they needed to defeat at any cost. And there was only one tool he had left that could possibly do the job.

He just needed to find the opportunity.

The Totsuka Blade grinded violently against Gran Caída, and in a flurry of blows Itachi hammered into his foe’s weapon, refusing to give him the opportunity to counterattack. As Starrk’s Ceros assailed him from the other side, the Yata Mirror flashed around to every side of the Susanoo, warding off the shots with expert precision. At his side, he could feel Law’s fatigue. He felt a flash of worry. The only reason why the Totsuka Blade could clash with Baraggan like this was thanks to K-Room. If he lost that boon…

‘Hang on, Law! Don’t waver, just a little longer!’

In his moment of distraction, however, Baraggan swept Gran Caída to the side, sweeping the bottom of the Susanoo out from under it and toppling the massive chakra construct onto its side. Swinging the axe down, he split open the Susanoo’s side, and it dissipated. Crouched down, Itachi and Law were left wide open, the enormous spectral figure standing over them, axe raised, oozing murderous intent.

“Despair!” Baraggan howled.

In that moment, the ground beneath their feet rumbled violently and Baraggan staggered. On the opposite side of Itachi and Law, Starrk’s gaze rose to the sky, and his eyebrows shot up. He let out a low whistle.

“You don’t see that every day.”

The ground around the four of them ripped up from beneath. All across the massive crater, earth ruptured and rose into the air, as though gravity had suddenly reversed, pulled up into the sky where a giant black orb floated. Before their eyes, chunks of rubble clung to the orb, and expanded outward as more and more debris was sucked in.

Across the battlefield, Harribel gritted her teeth as she was pulled from the ground by the immense gravity. But angling her body downward, she kicked off the air, forcing herself away from the orb with all her strength.

Floating in the air above, Nagato’s hands were clasped together. This attack was his greatest trump card; the move that would suck in Harribel, and the entire rest of the battlefield along with her.

‘Chibaku Tensei!’

The enormous mass of earth swelled at a rapid speed, soon more closely resembling a small planetoid than a chunk of rock. As more and more rock ripped up, the crater below began to more closely resemble a massive chasm than a crater.

Atop one of the floating pieces of rubble, Baraggan opened his mouth, and Respira spilled out, engulfing his surroundings in purple haze. 

“Respira: Sombra!”

The Respira wave blasted upward, and expanded outward to blanket the sky. As it struck the Chibaku Tensei head-on, the planetoid slowly began to crack. With a roar of exertion, Baraggan loosed more of the dark mist, and it slowly spread across the Chibaku Tensei, cracks opening in its path until the Respira had eclipsed the entire sphere.

CRRRRRRACK!

The Chibaku Tensei shattered. Dust and rubble rained from the sky. Released from the intense pull, Harribel slingshotted forward and impacted the ground hard. Itachi and Starrk dashed between falling chunks of rock, while Law materialized at ground level, forming a shimmering curtain over himself to teleport falling rubble elsewhere.

Shooting through the air like a bullet, Baraggan swung Gran Caída down toward the floating Nagato, who turned toward him much too slowly-

Shing!

Baraggan’s axe carved along the edge of the Totsuka Blade. Having teleported to intercept them, Itachi and Law had recombined their power to engage him once more. However, the force of the strike knocked them out of the sky, and they impacted the ground below, the Susanoo once again knocked onto its side.

Baraggan cackled as he soared down toward them, axe poised to strike.

“Ha! Don’t you foolish children ever learn?!”

As he impacted, he brought the axe down into the Susanoo’s side, and split it open. Rupturing once again, the Susanoo dissipated and left Itachi and Law open. Raising his axe, poised to strike, Baraggan oozed murderous intent.

The ground rumbled. Baraggan staggered.

‘What…?!’

The ground beneath them ruptured, ripped up into the air. Baraggan followed it with his gaze, annoyed. Above him, the red haired boy had his hands clasped together again. A new gravity well had materialized in the air, and was tearing up the area once again.

“It doesn’t matter how many times you try it!” Baraggan snarled, Respira gushing out of his mouth. Before the Chibaku Tensei had even fully formed, it was crumbling into dust once again.

Shing!

The Totsuka Blade carved against Baraggan’s back and he snarled. Swinging Gran Caída around, he knocked the sword out of the Susanoo’s hand, and with another swing he knocked the Susanoo onto its side, splitting it open.

“Enough!” He raised his axe, ready to bring it down.

The ground shook.

‘Wh…What…?’

As Baraggan turned toward the sky, he was once again greeted by the sight of a new Chibaku Tensei forming. His blank skull stared up at it without emotion.

‘What… is this…?’

Slowly, his Reiatsu began to bubble up within him as his anger grew.

‘What IS THIS?! What the hell is going on?! What did you…?!’

He roared, and Respira erupted from him once more.

“YOU THINK I DON’T SEE WHAT THIS IS?! YOU THINK YOUR FEEBLE ILLUSIONS CAN KEEP ME PACIFIED?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DEALING WITH?!”

His Respira erupted into the air.

The Chibaku Tensei shattered.

The Susanoo struck.

The Susanoo broke.

He raised his axe.

The ground shook.

‘I don’t care how many times I have to crush your feeble attack to dust… your illusions can’t last forever! NOTHING lasts forever! Eventually, every illusion has to end! My Respira will make that end a reality!’

…

…

…

“Izanami.”

Itachi placed his hand on Baraggan’s forehead. The skeleton’s face was tilted downward, and he stood motionless. The Respira that had swirled around his body had vanished entirely, so Itachi had shifted his Susanoo around Baraggan’s body. From the outside, Starrk gazed on with a perturbed expression on his face.

‘The hell?’

“An infinite time loop in his mind,” Itachi explained to Law. His eyelid drooped, and the exhaustion was audible in his voice. “Designed to punish those who would seek to avert fate. It will go on forever, so his Respira won’t be able to make it elapse.”

“So he’s just stuck in there, forever?”

“Until he learns to accept the inevitability of fate.” Itachi chuckled humorlessly. “Given what Nelliel said about him, I doubt we’ll be seeing that any time soon.”

As he spoke, his left eye shimmered and dulled, going blank. Law cried out sharply in alarm, his head whipping back and forth as the Susanoo around them crumbled away. Spinning around, he formed a curtain in between the two of them and Starrk, distorting space to shield them. His panic appeared unnecessary, however, as Starrk made no move to attack.

“I can only use the Susanoo with two Mangekyo,” Itachi said. “And I can’t use Tsukuyomi without my left eye. We’re down several powerful weapons, which is why this was my last resort.”

“Shut it! Less whining, more problem solving! I can’t beat this guy on my own-!”

“Maybe I could help!”

Law practically jumped out of his skin and whirled around again, as the voice seemed to have come from Baraggan’s body. However, as the motionless Espada’s body seemed to distort, it slowly twisted inward, sucked into a vortex to reveal the man standing behind it.

Tobi giggled cheerfully. “I sure hope I’m not too late!”

“The hell are you?” Law asked sharply, looking at Tobi with suspicion. Casting his memory back to Itachi’s description of the Akatsuki, he could not place the man standing before him. Had Itachi not mentioned him?

Tobi let out a jolly chuckle and patted Law on the shoulder. “Tobi’s the name! I’m just a friend, friend!” 

He turned toward Itachi and reached out, placing his palm against Itachi’s faded left eye. Itachi didn’t even flinch as Tobi wiggled his fingers against his face.

“Abra… ca… dabra!”

Pulling back his hand, Tobi revealed Itachi’s eye, which slowly slid open, completely restored to its normal state. The Susanoo re-materialized around them. Law’s eyes widened.

‘What the-? What kind of healing was that?’

Though he hadn’t had the chance to examine the lost eye, even his basic Scan had told him that the eye had been blinded beyond repair. To restore it so easily… how had this ‘Tobi’ person done it…?

Tobi did a small dance, wagging his arms back and forth.

“Well? How’s it feel?”

Itachi slowly reached up and traced a finger across his eyelid. Even he seemed slightly stunned.

“Good as new. How did you…?”

“Oh, you know,” Tobi waved his hand as if dismissing the question. “A magician never reveals his tricks!” As he spoke, he made an odd gesture where he reached up and tapped the left side of his mask with his thumb, in the spot where his other eye would have been. Itachi’s lips parted slightly, and then pressed together. Somehow, he seemed to understand the gesture.

“Well, in any case, I appreciate the aid. Where have you been, Tobi? We’ve been under siege.”

“Doctor’s appointment!” Tobi chirped. “Looking into getting a face lift! But they cost so much! I don’t trust that mean old Doctor Medicine at all…”

Itachi nodded seriously, as though in complete agreement. “Best to have insurance.”

Law stared deadpan at the two of them, a bead of sweat trailing down his brow.

‘What the hell are they talking about? I can’t follow what they’re saying at all…’

—

In the heart of the Forest of Death, the doctor in question twisted his body in between the heart-shaped slave arrows that rained down around him. Thanks to years of experimentation on himself, Orochimaru’s body had in many ways come to resemble a snake’s more than a human’s. Because of this, he could dislocate his own vertebrae and propel himself along with nothing but the muscles in his abdomen, essentially allowing him to move as though he was elastic.

With supernatural speed, he twisted around a tree and shot back toward where Boa stood, deflecting the arrows that she fired off of the Kusanagi Blade and going in for a fatal slash. However, as the blade raked along her neck, Armament Haki hardened her skin, and in a shower of sparks the sword glanced right off.

“Kehehehehe…”

Orochimaru twirled the blade, tossing it over to his other hand and swinging it in sharp arcs toward his opponent. With equal dexterity, Boa plunged her hand into the large pink heart from which she created her arrows, and pulled out a long, pink sword with a heart-shaped crossguard. In a flurry of sword strikes, the two clashed several times, blows glancing off each other with such speed and force that the ground beneath them trembled slightly. 

With a grin, Orochimaru switched hands again, his stance shifting as he pressured Boa at speeds too fast to see. Unbalanced by the sudden shift in pattern, Boa was forced backward, her parries barely managing to intercept Orochimaru’s strikes. An instant later, he had switched forms again, and gripped the sword’s hilt with both hands, his speed-focused style switching to wide, powerful slashes.

Twisting the Kusanagi Blade downward, Orochimaru caught the hilt of her sword on his blade and sent it spinning out of her hand. With a flourish, he spun the blade around, extending its length dramatically and swinging it in a wide, horizontal arc toward the side of her head.

Without missing a beat, Boa turned her head and brought her teeth down onto the blade. Hardened solid as steel by Haki, her jaw clenched down and held fast, the sword halted in place. Without giving Orochimaru time to react, she drew her arm up above her head, and then brought it down elbow-first against the flat of the sword. With a burst of Haki, the Kusanagi Blade shattered.

Spinning in place, Boa finished off with a powerful kick directly toward Orochimaru’s face. Just barely, he raised an arm to block, and as her foot slammed into his arm, a shimmering pink energy emitted from the contact point. As Orochimaru skidded away, a crackling sound rang out as his forearm froze to solid stone.

Orochimaru shifted backward, and for the first time a flash of displeasure crossed his face. The Kusanagi Blade had been a legendary weapon… one of his favorites. Still, he shook off the loss. This fight would be worth it, so long as he got what he wanted in the end.

Calmly, he formed a chakra blade around his remaining hand, and carved his petrified arm off at the shoulder. Moments later, a new arm had sprouted from the stump. Orochimaru clenched and unclenched his new fist, and then rolled his shoulder experimentally.

“I’ll admit, I’m impressed. That sword could pierce even the Third Hokage. Though, he was an old fool by then, I suppose.” He paused. “And… that last attack had no force behind it. Your strength isn’t anything compared to mine.”

Boa regarded him with a guarded gaze. Some distance away, Kuma watched the fight intently, still shielding Buggy with his body. Peeking out, the clown was watching with wide eyes as well.

“Oi, Kuma.”

Kuma didn’t respond.

“Kuma!”

“What?” Kuma didn’t even glance toward Buggy. Buggy pouted.

“Who do you think is gonna win?”

Kuma was silent for a moment. Then…

“Hancock will most likely lose.”

“Eh?!”

“This Orochimaru has not yet demonstrated his full arsenal, but even already he holds a clear advantage. He can easily replace any petrified limbs. Hancock’s arrows are slower than his movement speed. And her full-body petrification requires the opponent to be attracted to her. If that would have worked, she would most certainly have done it by now.”

“Then why not help her? Don’t you want to keep her alive?”

“Because she is stronger than I am. I could very well only get in her way.”

Buggy took a moment to process the answer, and then his jaw dropped and his eyes bugged out of his head.

‘O…Oi! What does that mean?! I’m getting protection from a guy who’s weaker than Hancock… and he says Hancock doesn’t stand a chance either?! What happens to me if this snake freak attacks us, then?!’

In Buggy’s mind, he had been envisioning a tier list of power in his head from the beginning of the match. Orochimaru at the bottom, Boa above him, and Kuma at the top, with a tiny chibi Buggy hiding behind Kuma. Now, though, the tier list ruthlessly flipped over in his mind, and the chibi Buggy let out a shriek of terror as he looked up at all the people above him.

“You’re a bit player.” Orochimaru’s voice cut cruelly through Buggy’s imagination, and with a shriek the clown dove all the way behind Kuma. But a moment later, he realized that Orochimaru wasn’t speaking to him. His gaze was fixed on Boa. “You know that, yes? You have no chance of surviving this game.”

“I don’t like presumptuous fools who try to tell me what I can and can’t do,” Boa replied, gazing down the bridge of her nose at the shorter man. “Things don’t tend to turn out well for them.”

“I hope you don’t think you can kill me,” Orochimaru replied, his eyes gleaming. “Let me tell you a little secret. The rest of the Akatsuki are weaker than I am. Even Itachi… and Tobi, as he’s still calling himself. I surpassed them a long time ago.”

Boa stared back, entirely unimpressed. “Is that supposed to intimidate me? I hardly know who those people are.”

Orochimaru tilted his head. “If you don’t have a death wish, I suppose so.”

Boa let out a haughty laugh, and tilted her head backward to look down at Orochimaru further. “Please. You men are truly all the same… well, almost. You always talk a big game, but are easily broken.”

“Oh? You intend to break me?”

“If you really are the strongest Akatsuki…” Boa ignored his question, her lips curling upward into a smile. “Then it will truly be embarrassing for you, to be defeated by a ‘bit player’ like me.”

—

Ceros fired like a machine gun from Starrk’s one remaining pistol. Though he had managed to maintain the near instantaneous speed of his Cero Metralleta, the loss of his arm had caused his Reiatsu to drop sharply. The release of Reiryoku from the body was normally controlled by small vents located in the wrists, so while Starrk’s Hierro could staunch the flow of energy as well as blood, his ability to release his power effectively was essentially halved.

Even so, he still possessed the unusual strength of the Primera Espada. Faced with three opponents at once, their attacks weren’t more than he could deal with, as long as he was fast and careful.

Well, mostly.

Itachi defended with the Yata Mirror, which his shots could no longer penetrate, but as time went on it was clear that the Uchiha’s strength was once again beginning to flag. Law had separated from the Susanoo again and was focused on offense, launching large chunks of debris through the air or striking with those slashes that cut space. His teleportation too, however, seemed to be slowing down. Their battle had turned into a war of attrition that Starrk was nearly sure to win.

At least, that would be the case, were it not for the newest member of the opposing party.

That man in the orange mask, Tobi, was different. Even immediately upon his arrival, Starrk had sensed a dangerous level of strength in the man, which had prompted him to refrain from attacking when Itachi’s Susanoo dissipated. Now, it was clear to him that he’d been right to be concerned.

Every Cero shot at the man’s position, every Bala and every Colmillo slash passed right through his body as though it was not there. As Starrk fired a shot down at the ground, a massive chunk of rock exploded upward into the air in front of him, and with another shot, Starrk sent it flying toward Tobi like a massive bullet shot from a railgun. But a moment later, Tobi’s masked face emerged from the surface of the rock, passing through it like a ghost as he lunged toward Starrk with his hand outstretched.

“Hands off, creep!”

Spinning his pistol around, Starrk shot a Cero through Tobi, and in the instant that it overlapped with his body, the man’s fingers passed right through Starrk’s throat. So, he couldn’t phase individual parts of his body at a time. He had to choose either intangible or solid. That was good.

Still, for every question that it answered, it raised another. Starrk was a Hollow, and an especially powerful one. Touching the intangible should have been old hat for him.

He had no time to contemplate, however, as Tobi leapt up off the ground just in time for a slash from Law to cleave in from behind and slash across Starrk’s chest. A thin cut open across with a small burst of blood.

“Colmillo!”

Los Lobos vanished and was replaced by an energy sword, which Starrk angled backward over his head to deflect a stab from the Totsuka Blade that was aimed at his back. Concentrating, he willed Reishi to congeal midair around the sword’s hilt, locking it in place. Releasing it with his hand, he whipped his arm back forward and his gun rematerialized, aimed directly at Law in front of him. He let loose two dozen Ceros at once, but as they approached Law they were met with two dozen slashes that carved each and every one in half.

In the air above, Tobi formed hand seals at blinding speed. He raised two fingers in front of his mask, and pulled it up slightly with his other hand to reveal his mouth.

“Fire Style: Phoenix Flame!”

From Tobi’s lips, a fireball blew out which split into many small comets of flame, descending on Starrk from above. From behind, another strike from the Totsuka Blade came, and from the front Law’s sword slashed through the air.

“Guh!”

Starrk aimed Los Lobos up toward Tobi, and let go of the pistol as Reishi locked it into place.

“Lilynette!”

“I got it!”

The gun fired on its own, bullseyeing every oncoming fireball one-by-one. His hand freed, Starrk seized the sword that was still locked between his shoulders. With inhuman speed, he parried Law’s spatial slashes with the blade and kicked up with his foot on the other side, knocking the Totsuka Blade’s stab aside with his foot. 

Spinning in place, he swung the foot up and caught his floating pistol with his heel, gripping it to the side of his leg with Reishi. He spun around, slashing out at Itachi with his sword and thrusting the pistol out toward Law with his leg, Lilynette’s shots filling the air once more and hammering the Warlord backward.

From above, Tobi descended and Starrk somersaulted over backward, just barely evading the downward kick that cracked the ground where he stood. All three of his opponents now in his line of sight as he rolled backward, he threw the sword up into the air and kicked Los Lobos up into his hand and pulled the trigger, Ceros assailing all three of his foes at once.

“Starrk, this isn’t working! There’s too many of them!”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it! Camarada!”

From the bandoliers that hung from his arms, Starrk’s blue Reiatsu shot out in countless streams, spreading off to either side of him. In moments, each one congealed into a large, blue wolf with a smoke-like tail and bright red eyes. Fifty in total, they snarled and their jaws snapped as they seemed to glare at the three foes across from them.

Tobi gasped sharply, flailing his arms in excitement.

“Puppies!!!”

Starrk took a deep breath.

“Let’s go… Lilynette.”

With a unified howl, the pack of wolves charged forward.

“Here they come!” Itachi called readying the Totsuka Blade.

“Can’t teleport them!” Law cried sharply in warning.

Itachi thrust the Totsuka Blade forward like a javelin, but as it pierced through several wolves like a skewer in a kabob, the wolves split apart into plumes of fire-like spiritual energy and re-solidified, their charge uninterrupted.

Shoving Law to the side, Tobi thrust a hand out, his fingers wiggling as he pressed his palm to the ground.

“Uchiha Flame Formation!”

Around them, a wall of blood red energy erupted, and as the first several wolves impacted it they each exploded in a blaze of spiritual energy. Though the barrier held, the ground within trembled and cracked slightly. Then-

“AROOOOOO!”

Smoky energy exploded up from those cracks, forming back into the wolves as it emerged, the barrier penetrated successfully. Several of them gnawed at Itachi’s Susanoo, ripping off chunks of the figure’s armor with their powerful jaws to reveal the bones underneath. Tobi wailed as two of them latched onto him.

“Bad puppies! BAD PUPPIES!”

Law barely managed to prevent one from sinking its teeth into his face, as it clamped down instead on his forearm.

In the distance, Starrk calmly watched.

‘Hmph. Let’s see how well you take this.’

In an instant, the wolves ignited. An enormous explosion of blue flames filled the Flame Formation’s barrier, pushing the red wall of energy outward with such force that it cracked ever so slightly – though it did not break. Slowly, the barrier dissipated, and the massive plume of smoke that had been contained within it puffed outward, filling the air.

Though the blast had been too powerful for a human opponent to reasonably survive, the sound of footsteps reached Starrk’s ears. He tilted his head. One set of footprints.

From the slowly-clearing smoke, Tobi emerged. His body didn’t have a scratch on it. Even so, he brushed off his sleeve as though beating dust off of himself.

“Phew! That almost killed me!”

“What are you, exactly?”

Tobi paused, and looked over at Starrk. Then he giggled.

“Oh, y’know…”

He tilted his head downward, and through the single hole in his mask, his red Sharingan gleamed.

“I am he who will see this broken world torn down.”

“…”

Starrk blinked several times in quick succession. That hadn’t been the answer he was expecting.

“…Huh?”

—

Law gasped sharply as he sat bolt upright. His eyes swiveled back and forth frantically as he tried to get his bearings. On the flat ground next to him, Itachi lay, groaning softly, blood trickling from both his eyes.

No, it wasn’t right to say that it was on the ground. The floor beneath them was smooth tile. Some distance away, the ground split off into a new cube-like surface, slightly elevated from theirs. In fact, the place in which they had found themselves seemed to be entirely constructed of large cube-like platforms, pressed against each other and extending as far as the eye could see. The sky was pitch black, no sun, moon or stars in sight. It was silent. Empty. Ominous.

Law turned around to look behind him, and cried out, staggering backward and tripping over his own feet as he scrambled away, heart racing and lungs spasming. As he had turned, he had come face to face with the motionless visage of Baraggan Louisenbairn.

The Espada stood unmoving, rigid and silent. His eye sockets, empty as always, appeared to be gazing at nothing and his head was slightly bowed. The same position he had been left in by Itachi’s Izanami.

Slowly, as it became clear that Baraggan wasn’t going to move any time soon, Law’s breathing and heart rate eased. Pulling himself back up to his feet, he glanced around again and voiced the question that had been on his mind since they had arrived.

“Where the hell are we?”

Itachi let out a half-groan half-yell and Law jumped again. The Uchiha rolled over onto his stomach and propped himself up on his hands and knees, before retching up a massive glob of blood onto the floor beneath him. Kneeling next to Itachi and placing a hand on his shoulder, Law felt a flash of concern, and then annoyance at himself for caring.

Focusing on his ability, Law scanned Itachi’s body once again, and realized with a sinking sensation that the havoc that his illness had wreaked upon the man’s body was far more extensive than he had previously managed to glean. He had been aware of that at the time, of course, but he had hoped that his repairs would at least last through the end of this battle. Now, however, he realized that he had essentially stuck a band-aid over a grievous flesh wound. Itachi was not nearly well enough to keep fighting, and would not be any time soon without substantial treatment.

Law fidgeted in place as he scanned through every square inch of Itachi’s body, his mind working at a thousand miles per hour. Every nerve, every blood vessel, the complexities of the man’s immune system, every detail of his condition flowed into Law’s mind. Finally, his scan complete, the Surgeon of Death opened his eyes, having ascertained what he had suspected from the beginning.

‘I can cure him.’

He stood, and began to pace back and forth restlessly. In all honesty, Law had been almost certain that he could from the beginning. MPA was a terrible illness, one that was very commonly fatal, and conventional medicine could only treat it, not cure it. But with the Ope Ope no Mi, any ailment was said to be curable, with enough time, effort, and knowledge. And there was no one as knowledgeable as Law.

Even still, he hesitated. He remembered the things Nel had told him, about the family that Itachi had slaughtered. The man had, apparently, told her the full story himself, no compassion or regret or emotion in his eyes. As though discussing an incident that was of no consequence to him. In his stress and exhaustion, Law had of course confronted the man about it. It had hit a bit too close to home for him, the idea of allowing one’s family to die without lifting a finger to help them. And Itachi’s response had been exactly as cold and clinical as Nel had described him.

The man was a monster. Law shouldn’t cure him, he shouldn’t, and yet…

When Law had encountered him again in the frozen forest, something about the man’s eyes had changed. The coldness had been replaced in some way. He had seemed suddenly more open. There had been a gleam in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. He had used his Tsukuyomi to help Law rest, and in the ensuing battle he had fought with purpose, and he had saved Law’s life multiple times. Had that all been for no other reason than to ensure the outcome of the war? 

Law shook his head. None of this mattered. There was no point in getting caught up in whether he wanted to cure Itachi or not. The question was whether it was the smart thing to do. The other man’s abilities were tremendous, perhaps essential if they wanted to win the ensuing battle. But that also made them dangerous. If forced to confront Itachi as enemies, a sick Itachi would be vastly preferable over a healthy one.

‘If I don’t cure him, it’ll be a breach of our truce.’

No, that was wrong. Neither Itachi, Pain, nor Tobi had any reason to believe that Law could cure Itachi… none of them would even think twice if he chose not to do it. Even if he were to flee the battlefield entirely, he could hardly be blamed for that. They were on different sides after all, he couldn’t allow himself to forget that.

‘If the Akatsuki are wiped out here, we lose the war.’

Unambiguously true, at least if Mihawk’s vision was to be believed. Losing this battle was the worst case scenario as far as Law’s own survival was concerned.

‘If I don’t cure Itachi, we can’t win.’

Possibly true. Baraggan had been defeated, but it was still unclear whether he and Tobi would be able to take down Starrk without Itachi’s help. Even assuming they could, he had no idea where Harribel had gone or whether Pain’s puppeteer was winning or losing. An Itachi whose illness wasn’t holding him back… that could turn the tide of the battle.

Law breathed a heavy sigh and stopped pacing.

“Alright, jackass, hold still.” He knelt down, and placed a hand on the still-heaving Itachi. He closed his eyes and concentrated. “I’ll get rid of that illness for you.”

—

Things were not going well for Harribel. The powerful Reiatsu that had filled her body upon achieving Segunda Etapa was waning. Several dozen meters away, Nagato swung his arm around – transformed into a thick laser cannon – and its powerful beam swept across the ground after her. As she pushed her Sonído harder to outrun it, her speed flagged rapidly. But then, the beam itself faltered too, and fell behind.

Nagato’s body seemed to shrivel slightly, his muscle mass diminishing as his chakra ripped out of his body, supercharging the laser blast. But just as his ribs began to show against his bare skin, he sucked in more power from the rain storm with the Preta Path, and his muscle mass filled out again.

Ahead of Harribel, his massive rhinoceros roared and charged her, its horn angled down to gore her. With a battle cry, however, she leapt into the air to meet it and swung her trident upward in a sweeping strike. The prongs of the trident slammed into the rhino’s jaw and hurled it into the air, its head snapping upward until its body turned over. Harribel flipped the trident in her hand, and hurled it downward into the rhino’s exposed chest.

Schlurk!

As the trident struck the rhino, a massive spike of blood exploded out of it and pierced the giant beast all the way through, and with a warbling squeal, it was hurled down and speared into the ground.

Telekinetically, Harribel recalled the trident to her hand and spun around midair, a tidal wave of blood materializing from the trident as she swung it and swept up the giant dog that now leapt at her. As it yowled, she flung the mass of blood, and the dog along with it, into the distance, and it crashed down beyond the outer edge of the Rain Village crater.

Behind her, Nagato materialized, his speed boosted enough for him to outpace even her Pesquisa in short bursts. With Sonído, she boosted into the air and his hand closed in the air where her head had been a moment before. Flipping over midair, she boosted back down toward him and speared out with the trident.

Instantly, however, Nagato’s left arm split into three arms, and all three of them slammed the trident to the side, before delivering three blows simultaneously to Harribel’s unguarded stomach. As she coughed up blood and was hurled away, Nagato thrust out his other arm.

“Bansho Ten’in!”

Freezing midair, Harribel was ripped back in, and Nagato caught her by the throat. From his back, six metal tendrils extended, manifested by the power of the Asura Path. Each of them glowing with mounting energy, every last one angled toward Harribel’s face. As she struggled, she instinctively began to gather the energy to fire a Gran Rey Cero – and then immediately thought better of it. An energy attack so massive would likely only end up sustaining Nagato indefinitely.

In a blinding flash of light, all six tendrils fired their blasts simultaneously, and Harribel was engulfed.

—

“Summoning Jutsu!”

In a giant puff of smoke, the Forest of Death shook violently, and birds took flight from the treetops. Massive trees that stretched hundreds of meters into the sky toppled like dominos as a massive beast plowed through them, blazing forth in hot pursuit of a fleeing Boa Hancock.

The creature’s jaws snapped together with such force that it created a shockwave, but the Warlord managed to keep ahead of it. An angry hiss filled the air, as Manda’s massive head reared back for a second shot.

Boa angled her arm back, and formed a half heart with her hand.

“Mero Mero Mellow!”

A pink beam fired from her hand and struck Manda’s shimmering flesh, the spot where it struck morphing into solid stone. Boa grimaced. Atop the monster’s head, Orochimaru chuckled.

“I’m afraid that won’t work, my dear. Manda’s skin is highly impervious. You won’t have much luck affecting his whole body.” 

As he finished his sentence, he jerked his head to the side and a Slave Arrow whistled past his ear, nicking it and drawing a drop of blood. He smiled condescendingly.

“Awww, how adorable.”

Far below, Boa angled her bow upward, and a massive hail of Slave Arrows, dozens of them, blasted directly up into the sky ahead of Orochimaru. His gaze followed them with curiosity, for their trajectory appeared to be completely off of his direction.

In an instant, however, above the Slave Arrows, Kuma materialized in midair, drawing his arm back.

“Ahhhh, I see.”

Kuma thrust his palm forward, and the Slave Arrows were repelled directly toward Orochimaru, firing down toward him at the speed of light. As clever as the combo attack was, though, Orochimaru was faster. Forming hand seals at blinding speed, he clasped his hands together, fingers extended up to his lips.

“Wind Style: Great Gale!”

A hail of spear-like bursts of wind blasted from his mouth, meeting the Slave Arrows midair and blasting them out of the sky in explosions of pink light. Without missing a beat, Orochimaru began to form more hand seals, but this time Kuma was faster. Instantly, he blasted himself down toward Manda, and thrust his palm into the massive snake’s snout.

With a shockwave, Manda’s head was hurled  downward, Orochimaru rooted to the top of his skull with chakra. As Manda slammed down into the ground, Boa turned and struck out with her foot, coated in Haki.

But what struck Manda wasn’t Armament Haki. The air around the impact point seemed to change color, and the aura that Boa released spread out in a wave across his body. Immediately, Manda recoiled, hissing angrily and shaking his head around, disoriented.

“What is thisssss?” He growled angrily, massive eyes sliding in and out of focus.

“Conqueror’s Haki,” Orochimaru mused, looking mildly entertained. “A powerful force indeed, to affect even you.”

Manda let out a gurgling growl as he shook his head even more violently, trying to shake off the effect.

“Bow down, under the Color of the Supreme King!” Boa shouted up from the ground below, Conqueror’s Haki rippling from her with ever increasing intensity as her will pressed against Manda’s. Calmly, Orochimaru raised his hand and extended two fingers, casting a silent jutsu that eased the aura pressing against his body. Manda, still unprotected, spat in defiance.

“I answer to no conqueror, foolish girl.”

“Then answer to an Empress! The Empress of Amazon Lily commands you… submit!”

With a final surge of Conqueror’s Haki, Manda’s head snapped back, his massive frame went rigid, and his eyes became glassy. With a groan, the king of snakes toppled forward, and impacted the ground so hard it upheaved the earth, a massive cloud of dust hurled into the air.

Atop the unconscious snake’s head, Orochimaru looked down at Boa with ever-growing hunger.

‘Kehehehe… well, now. It seems my interest is not misplaced.’

—

CRASH!

A plume of dust exploded into the air as Harribel’s body impacted the ground. For a moment, she lay there at the center of the crater her body had created. Vaguely, she registered that her vision was tinged red. Her own blood was spilling into her eyes.

“You look like shit.”

Starrk.

‘Ugh.’

Slowly, blinking heavily to try to assuage the stinging feeling, Harribel dragged herself up to her knees, then one knee, then her feet. Her body throbbed, spots exploded in front of her eyes even as she reached up to wipe away the blood. And then her vision cleared, and she was standing next to Starrk.

“B-Baraggan?”

“Alive. But in some kind of trance and captured.”

‘Ugh…’

“And the enemy?”

“The boys from earlier disappeared, don’t know where to. But there’s a new one now. Stronger than the others, I think.”

‘Ugh…’

As if on cue, a head poked out from the ground some distance away from them. It took Harribel a moment to recognize that it had not burrowed out; they had simply passed through the ground as though it were permeable.

“Hello there!” Tobi chirped in his irritating voice. His hand rose from the ground as well and gave a small wave. “I’m Tobi! Yoroshikuuuuu!”

Harribel glanced at Starrk, and he shrugged.

“He acts like an idiot, don’t know why. But he was saying some scary things earlier.”

Descending from the sky above, Nagato touched down gently next to Tobi’s head. He glanced down at it, then back up at Harribel and Starrk.

“Madara, my lord,” he greeted Tobi. “I am profoundly sorry that you have been troubled by this mess.”

‘Madara…?’ Harribel wondered, the name unfamiliar.

“‘My lord?’” Lilynette echoed, within Starrk’s mind.

“Not at all, Nagato,” Tobi replied in a much deeper voice, as though he had not been playing around just moments prior, and rose out of the ground to stand next to his subordinate. “This can hardly be considered trouble for one such as myself.” He tilted his head, his mask obscuring his expression. “In fact, I daresay we need not trouble ourselves with it any longer.”

Forming hand seals quickly, he pressed a hand to the ground.

“Wood Style: Wood Dragon Jutsu!”

From the ground in front of Tobi, massive wooden roots exploded upward, and from the roots a giant, dragon-shaped head sprouted, opening its maw wide for an enormous, crackling growl.

Without missing a beat, Starrk raised his pistol and fired Ceros into the dragon’s head, but as the energy struck the wood, it was absorbed into the creature, its wooden hide undamaged by the attack. It swelled slightly in size, and its roars grew louder.

“Ah.” Starrk said, lowering his gun slightly. “That’s… not ideal.”

“We need to kill Nagato,” Harribel rasped, swallowing heavily as she pushed down her fatigue. “I’m well past my limit, and this form will only last a few more minutes. But if we can take him down, then it will just be the two of us against the masked Madara.”

Starrk tilted his head to stretch his neck, and rolled his shoulder.

“Roger that, cap’n.”

‘We can do this. It’s almost over. We just have to get past-’

All of a sudden, Harribel’s senses exploded into overtime. Sheer, overwhelming power seemed to fill every corner of her mind, and she staggered. Starrk, with all his spiritual power, was immovable, but sweat seemed to glisten on even his brow, as space above them distorted sharply.

‘What… is that?’

She didn’t need to wait long for her answer. From the spatial distortion above her, a massive column of orange energy speared through space itself and then was swept to the side, tearing open a gash in reality. In the far distance, the energy tore a chasm into the side of the crater. As space shattered, a massive hand broke through, and then a body followed it. 

Across from them, Nagato looked stunned, and Tobi’s eyes narrowed. Though it was far different than it had appeared previously, both Espada had no trouble recognizing the figure. 

It was Starrk who verbalized their collective feeling: “Aw, hell.”

Flying into the sky, the giant, bright orange figure raised its sword in one hand, and its shield in the other. In the center of its head, a man floated. The curved triangles that had once formed his pupils had morphed into a six-sided star: the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. 

Itachi Uchiha’s lips curled up into a silent smile, as around him, his newly-achieved Perfect Susanoo overflowed with incredible power. He felt weightless. No pain in his chest, no sorrow weighing down his soul, not a hint of blurriness in his vision…

For the first time in his life, he felt like he could do anything.

—

In the misty marshes to the south of the Rain Village, Law materialized and staggered, slumping against a tree and sliding to the ground. His head pounded terribly, and every limb ached with exhaustion. He had already been feeling the fatigue of the battle, but the effort of performing a complex medical reconstruction of Itachi’s entire body… he would need quite a bit of rest before he would be in any shape to fight again.

Allowing his eyes to slide closed, he let out a deep, shuddering breath.

‘Just need… to nap for a bit…’

Behind him, a shadow shimmered in the mist. A figure gazed upon him with bright yellow eyes. It grinned widely.

‘Perfect…’

—

Pad-shaped Danmaku rained down on the battlefield, pockets of air repelled downward by Kuma’s palm thrusts. However, unlike Deidara, who had been unable to react to the speed of the blindingly fast projectiles, Orochimaru weaved through them with effortless dexterity, his body twisting as he snaked through the forest’s foliage.

“How very predictable!” Orochimaru sneered, forming a hand seal. “Fire Style: Rising Smoke!”

A fireball streamed from his mouth and engulfed the underbrush, and in mere moments the forest was ablaze. Subjected to powerful flames, the green plants released a massive amount of smoke, which billowed upward and engulfed Kuma.

Immediately, Kuma’s vision switched over to a different light frequency, his incredibly advanced optic implants scanning through the smoke for his target. Opening his mouth, he fired powerful beams of light into the smog below, raining fire upon the spot where Orochimaru had been moments before.

His aim was misguided. Orochimaru burst from the smoke above him, having stretched his body far into the sky. Blitzing forward, Orochimaru’s hand became cloaked in chakra and drove into the joint of Kuma’s shoulder like a massive scalpel.

“Kehehehehe!” Orochimaru ripped his hand from the wound in a shower of blood and circuits, and Kuma grunted in pain. “Stay out of this, big boy. This is between my prey and I!”

“Then you had better keep your attention on me!”

As he went for another stab with Chakra Scalpel, a pink blur whipped from the smoke and lashed around Orochimaru’s midsection. As the rope snapped taut, Orochimaru found himself ripped backwards away from Kuma and swung around in a wide arc. He smashed into a massive tree trunk with enough force to plow right through it with a crunch!, and then a second, and a third. Finally, he slammed to a halt against a giant redwood in the distance, cratered against the wood’s surface.

“Mero Mero Whip!”

Boa ripped the whip backward – pink and covered in hearts, undoubtedly formed by her Devil Fruit’s power. Orochimaru went flying into the air, tumbling head over foot before he managed to catch himself, bringing his chakra-coated hand down to sever the whip in half. Freed from the weapon’s snare, he landed on his feet and skidded several meters.

“Hmph.” Boa allowed the whip to disintegrate in her hands. “Not the sort of man who likes to be tied up?”

Orochimaru straightened up and rubbed his waist slightly, though otherwise appeared unharmed.

“I’m the sort of man who likes a great many things, though ‘man’ may perhaps be a simplification.” He paused. “Though if the question is why I haven’t turned to stone by now, it’s because I modified my own endocrine system a long time ago, to sever the sorts of impulses that your powers are contingent upon.” As he spoke, he casually formed several hand seals.

Boa smirked. “I have other ways to break you.”

“I think you’ll find me quite unbreakable. Ninja Art: Snake Mouth Bind!”

Pressing a hand to the ground below him, Orochimaru seemed to release a wave of red energy from his location… No it wasn’t that. From where he stood, the ground was transformed into a red, flesh-like substance: the meaty lining of the inside of a snake’s throat. 

As it spread outward toward Boa’s location, she stomped her foot down without a moment’s hesitation, and a wave of Conqueror’s Haki rippled out from her location. It met the expanding Snake Mouth Bind head-on, and the jutsu slowed dramatically, the two pushing sharply against one another. Finally, the Haki won out and the effect dissipated, the meat-like substance appearing to sink back into the soil, leaving dirt and grass to reappear in its place.

For the first time, Orochimaru looked almost perturbed.

‘Oh? Her Haki can cancel even my Snake Mouth Bind… I suppose that means it can probably suppress my other jutsu. Feh. A bit annoying, I’ll admit…’

Taking a deep breath, Boa raised her hands and placed them both over her heart, closing her eyes in concentration.

“Orochimaru,” she spoke, her voice commanding. “You claim you are impervious to my power.” Her eyes opened, and she fixed him with a cold stare. “Would you be willing to put that to the test?”

Orochimaru was silent for a moment, and then sneered. “I’m nothing, if not driven by curiosity.”

Boa’s hands began to glow with pink energy, and slowly she uncurled them to form a heart-shaped symbol over her chest. Mero Mero power began to shine brighter and brighter, coalescing into one point in the center of her hands.

“Then I will hold nothing back!”

Orochimaru regarded it calmly. ‘What is this…? I can sense no power coming from it. No pressure, no gravity, not even the slightest bit of malice… is it merely intended to petrify me? If so, I can almost surely escape. If this is truly her greatest power, it seems woefully inadequate.’

Some distance away, Buggy peeked over a giant tree root as the pink glow expanded in the distance.

“What the heck is that-?” Buggy cut himself off, as he suddenly noticed a massive figure barreling through the undergrowth, headed directly his way. “Oi, Kuma, what the heck is going-OOF!”

Kuma slammed into Buggy without slowing down, seizing him by the scruff of his neck and lifting him up to place the clown on his back as he continued to sprint in the opposite direction of Boa and Orochimaru.

“Hancock plans to unleash her ultimate technique,” he supplied, before Buggy could inquire again. “The Mero Mero Cannon. If we stay, we’ll both be killed.”

“Ehhhhh?” Buggy craned his neck back toward the pink glow. “Are you sure? I mean, I don’t got Observation Haki, but I can usually tell when a powerhouse like Hancock is getting serious, and I don’t feel anything from her right now!”

Kuma didn’t slow his pace, propelling himself into the air overtop of giant tree roots as he answered.

“The Mero Mero Cannon isn’t a traditional attack. It causes no destruction. It doesn’t even turn the target to stone. Whereas Hancock’s power normally seizes upon a target’s lust, this one uses a power far more dangerous and terrible.”

“What’s that?”

Kuma closed his eyes as he ran.

“Love.”

Back in the spot where Boa and Orochimaru were facing off, the energy that Boa had gathered had reached a crescendo, vibrant waves emanating from the spot above her heart. Across from her, Orochimaru seemed, for the first time, to be growing unnerved. In his mind’s eye, his own memories flashed one after the other, seemingly drawn forth by Boa’s power.

“Love for oneself.”

The time he had spent cultivating power within himself, power that surpassed the rest of the Akatsuki.

“Love for one’s comrades.”

Kimimaro. The Sound Four. Kabuto. Those whose potential he had nurtured and then forgotten about.

“Love for one’s elders…”

Hiruzen, the Third Hokage. The man who had been like a father to him.

“…and their juniors.”

Sasuke. Of whom he felt strangely proud.

“Friends.”

Jiraiya. Tsunade.

“Family.”

Mitsuki.

Boa raised her hands. The pink light surged toward Orochimaru. His eyes went wide and he leapt into the air, his hands moving to form seals as he realized too late the very real danger he was in.

“All that love he feels, no matter how twisted… will reduce him to ashes.”

As the blast struck him head-on and everything went white, Orochimaru’s scream of agony split the air.

…

…

…

Rubble rained down from the air. Smoke billowed up from the ground. The spot where Orochimaru had stood had been engulfed entirely, obscured by a haze of steam and Mero Mero power.

Panting heavily, Boa allowed her arms to drop to her sides. Her ears rang, and she realized that she might not be able to hear the death announcement, if it sounded. The Mero Mero Cannon was the ultimate expression of her ability, and so took a lot out of her on rare occasions where she was pressed enough to use it. Even so, it wasn’t survivable. No matter how twisted or repressed a target’s love was, as long as it existed they would be-

“ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!”

A roar of agonized fury split the air, almost more like that of an animal than a person. Staggering from the smoke, Orochimaru fell to his hands and knees, his entire body bubbling as his chunks of rotted flesh dripped from his bones as though burned away by acid.

He let out an incomprehensible screech of pure pain. One of his eyes popped in his skull.

‘He’s… alive?!’ Boa staggered in place, trying to muster enough energy to mount another attack. ‘He should be dust! How could he possibly-?!’

“Raasssshhhooooomonnn…” Orochimaru moaned, letting out a sickening hack that might have been a laugh if he hadn’t been half-dead. “Ssssssummoned… blocked… hit… lasssst sssssecond…” He hacked again. His body seemed to be furiously working to stitch itself back together. “Just like- him…”

He staggered to his feet. As skin and muscle sloughed off of his body, new sinew knitted itself together in its place. A new eye was beginning to take shape in his skull. He let out a coughing laugh.

“Issss that the besssst you can do, Boa Hancock?” he hissed. “What wasssss that you ssssaid about killing me?” She remained silent, and the seconds stretched between them. Then he exploded, his eyes bulging with fury, with indignation. “WHERE DID THAT ARROGANCE OF YOURS GO, EMPRESSSSS? WHERE IS THE BRAVADO, FROM THE WOMAN WHO WOULD DARE COME SO CLOSE TO KILLING ME?!”

He spat furiously, spittle flying from his mouth, his rage mounting as the center of his chest bubbled and frothed more intensely with every word. Finally, white flesh exploded outward and engulfed his body. As Boa backed away and a shadow loomed over her, Orochimaru’s voice hissed out, far more monstrous than before.

“I’ll show you… the difference between you and I…”

Eighteen red eyes gleamed, and nine forked tongues flicked across mouths without lips, as the Hydra bared its fangs.

“I’ll make you sssssssuffer…”

—

In a blaze of motion far too fast for its size, Itachi’s Perfect Susanoo unfurled its wings and then flipped over midair, shooting down toward the ground like a bullet. Within seconds, it reached the ground and sharply leveled out, soaring across the floor of the crater toward the Espada far ahead.

At blinding speed, the super-sized Totsuka Blade in its grip tore massive chunks out of the ground in front of it. Geysers of spiritual fire erupted from the ground like plumes of lava as it advanced. 

“Starrk!”

As Harribel bellowed his name, the Primera Espada leapt hundreds of meters into the air with Sonído, his single Los Lobos pistol morphing in his grip, becoming much larger as it began to glow, power storing up in its barrel.

“On my mark!”

Harribel spun her trident over her head. The pouring rain swirled into a massive cyclone of water and mixed with the blood that the trident released, congealing into a massive vortex. With a swing of the trident and a scream of effort tinged with the sound of a Hollow screech, Harribel unleashed a massive tidal wave… no, a tsunami of blood-soaked water. As it crashed forth, it met the approaching Susanoo head-on.

With a surge of heat, black Amaterasu flames burst from the Susanoo’s eye, crackling around it furiously. Hundreds of meters away, far from the flames, the tidal wave sizzled and steamed as it began to evaporate. Spinning the Totsuka Blade in the Susanoo’s hand, Itachi caught the black flames on the edge of the blade, and they spread across the sword until the entire blade was cloaked in Amaterasu.

SHING!

With tremendous force, the Amaterasu Totsuka Blade struck the tidal wave, and in an instant it split apart. A moment later, it had entirely evaporated, turned into molecules by the heat of the black flame. A shockwave rippled out from the blade’s point of impact, and in the far distance, mountains well beyond the edge of the crater split apart from the force of the blow.

An instant later, the Susanoo was on top of Harribel, and slammed its massive foot down into the ground, releasing a shockwave that hurled her into the air.

‘Urgh-!’

WHAM!

With no time to recover, the Susanoo bashed the gigantic Yata Mirror directly into Harribel and sent her flying across the crater, slamming into the side of it with enough force that her body was embedded into the ground. As she struggled to pull herself out, blood gushing from her nose, mouth, and forehead, Harribel let out a barking rasp.

“S-Starrk…!”

Above the Susanoo, Starrk unleashed his charged shot. A massive Gran Rey Cero split the sky, twisting around itself as the shapes of charging wolves seemed to briefly manifest out of the powerful flow of energy. 

Itachi thrust the Totsuka Blade down into the gourd at the Susanoo’s hip, allowing the gourd’s energy to flow into the blade. Then, ripping the sword forth from the gourd he swung the blade up, carving directly up the path of the Gran Rey Cero and splitting it cleanly in half.

“Gah-!!!”

Blood spurted from Starrk’s chest as the Totsuka Blade carved deep into him, shoulder to hip.

“STARRK!!!” Lilynette’s wail filled his head. Distantly, Starrk registered that the wound wasn’t imminently fatal. Even still, recalling a similar wound that had been inflicted upon him by Shunsui Kyōraku… for a moment, his Reiatsu wavered.

WHAM!

Three fists struck Starrk’s face from the side. Midair Nagato had materialized, the strength of the Asura Path knocking Starrk across the sky. Barely recovering, Starrk fired three shots in Nagato’s direction, but cursed inwardly as they were sucked away into nothing by the Preta Path.

A massive shadow fell over him as the Perfect Susanoo hurtled up behind him, and with a swing of its blade struck him down toward the earth below. As a second gash opened across Starrk’s chest, crisscrossed with the first, he tumbled head over heels and plummeted toward the ground below. His strength flagged, and for a moment he thought about losing consciousness. Then…

WHAM!

Starrk’s body impacted the ground. His bones creaked violently. Some snapped. Gazing up at the sky, Starrk lay dazed. The sun shone down through the clouds – Itachi’s giant heat shockwave had put a stop to the rainfall.

‘I think… I could use a nap…’

“Snap out of it, Starrk! You can still get up!”

He forced his eyes to stay open.

‘But I’m so tired… I’m not used to working this hard…’

Even as he thought it, seemingly without conscious thought, he rolled over onto his stomach, and started pushing himself up off the ground.

‘Why am I getting up…?’

It was as though the weight of the world was pressing down on him, but even so he somehow forced himself up to his feet. Blood trickled down into his eyes. His only good arm hung down. Broken. Los Lobos dangled from his hand.

‘How did I…?’

“Bansho Ten’in!”

Starrk found himself ripped off his feet, hurtling through the air until he felt fingers close around his throat. Cracking his eyes open, he was greeted by Nagato, who had lifted him into the air and was holding him firmly with one hand.

Ignoring the pain, Starrk forced his broken arm up and unloaded three Ceros point-blank into Nagato’s chest. Absorbed through his skin, they did nothing.

“Ugh… w-worth a shot…”

“Enough of this.” With his other arm, Nagato slammed a palm into Starrk’s chest, and pain flared through his body. Not normal pain… something deeper, that shook him to his core. A moment later, he understood why.

“KYAHHHHHH!” Lilynette’s scream filled Starrk’s head as Nagato pulled back, and shimmering green energy rippled out from Starrk’s chest. A shimmering spectral figure – Lilynette – was being ripped from the depths of his very being. Though Starrk didn’t know it, this was the power of the Human Path.

“No!”

Knowing that he could not kill Nagato with a Cero – assuming he could even use a Cero while Lilynette was being ripped from him – Starrk swung Los Lobos to strike Nagato across the side of the face. The Akatsuki’s leader grunted, a bruise blooming on his cheek, but as Starrk reeled his arm back to strike again, another arm sprouted from Nagato’s shoulder and caught the swing, holding Starrk’s wrist in a vicegrip.

“Starrk!! Do something!!!” Lilynette wailed as she struggled furiously against Nagato’s pull, the two straining against each other.

“Let go of her!” Starrk struggled to wrench his arm from Nagato’s grip, to will Lilynette back into him, anything to prevent what Nagato was doing. Nagato grimaced.

“Irritating girl. Cease your pathetic resistance.”

Lilynette’s spirit blew a raspberry in his face, and he blinked sharply, momentarily disoriented. “Bite me!”

In that moment, however, Nagato’s gaze flickered upward, and he twitched. “Fine. Hard way it is, then.”

He drew his arms back sharply, releasing Starrk’s arm and throat and keeping his grip only on Lilynette’s spirit. In that moment, Starrk felt a momentary flash of confusion, and then a massive wall of orange descended in front of him, and pain exploded through him as Lilynette’s bloodcurdling scream split the air.

From above, Itachi’s blade had descended and split Lilynette’s spirit from Starrk by force.

In an instant, all the fight left Starrk’s body and he collapsed to his knees. As the Totsuka Blade rose into the air, he watched with despair as his oldest companion dissipated into thin air, her soul sealed away by the Human Path’s power.

‘……No……’

SHINK!

Starrk didn’t even flinch or react as red filled his vision. Nagato’s eyes, meanwhile, went wide. A numb ache registered in his head and his vision blurred. All of a sudden, he couldn’t feel his arms or legs, a paralyzing numbness spreading out from the center of his body. Slowly, his gaze moved downward, to the three blood-soaked spikes protruding from the center of his chest.

“A…Ah.”

In an explosion of blood, the blades ripped backward through his body and he staggered, crumpling forward to the ground. Standing over him, panting heavily and covered in blood and dust, Harribel stood. 

In the split second that Nagato had let his guard down, the shark had struck, and now the Akatsuki’s leader lay dying at the feet of the Espada’s king. Though Itachi and Tobi both remained, and Starrk stared at the ground, his spirit broken, Harribel felt a spark of triumph fill her.

They had won.

—

Boa’s lungs burned as she tried to force her legs backward. Coughing sharply, she raised a hand to cover her mouth, and crumpled to her knees as numbness began to spread through her body.

‘Wh… What is…?’

“Kehehehehe…” The Hydra’s nine heads loomed over her, Orochimaru’s slitted eyes gleaming as he stared down at her triumphantly. “My bodily fluids evaporate when exposed to the air. Your body is paralyzed. I am immortal, and your attack failed to destroy me. You’ve lost, Empress. Submit.”

Boa glared up at him, defiant. “I will not. Not now, not ever.”

“We shall see how long that resolve lasts.”

Unhinging nine jaws to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth, the nine heads of the Hydra lunged.

Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! 

Before they could snap down on Boa, however, each of the serpent heads was slammed to the side by an invisible projectile. Momentarily left reeling, Orochimaru snapped his heads around to glare at the one who interrupted him. At the edge of the clearing, perched atop a huge fallen tree, Kuma stood with paws outstretched.

On his back, Buggy wailed in panic, tears flowing from his eyes as Orochimaru’s gleaming eyes landed on the two of them.

“What’re ya doing, what’reyadoing, WHAT’REYADOING-”

Reaching up, Kuma plucked Buggy from his back and set him down atop the tree.

“Run, Buggy.”

Without needing to be told twice, the clown scrambled to his feet and sprinted off in the opposite direction, his limbs flailing wildly as he fled. Without watching him go, Kuma leapt down from the tree and trudged forward toward the Hydra, no fear in his eyes.

“Kuma!” Boa cried in warning. “Don’t get too close! He’s poisoned the air!”

Her warning had come too late, but as a flare of pain shot through Kuma’s chest and sweat began to form on his forehead, he didn’t halt. His gaze was hardened in determination.

“Do not fear. I will save you. I am more machine than man… poison will not paralyze me.”

The Hydra laughed.

“Even so, you must know you stand little chance.”

“I need only send you away with my power… that, I can do.” Kuma’s jaw clenched stubbornly. 

Bending his knees, Kuma thrust his palm backward and blasted himself forward with the power of his Nikyu Nikyu no Mi. But not toward the Hydra. Kuma’s words just moments prior had been a misdirection. As he blitzed forward at speed far too great for his bulky frame, his hand stretched out toward Boa, intent on sending her off to the other side of the arena.

To openly challenge Orochimaru was to risk his life, just as it had been a risk to attack Blackbeard… but they needed Boa Hancock. She was their contingency plan for Itachi.

WHAM!

One of the Hydra’s tendrils slammed down between Kuma and Boa and then swept to the side, slamming into Kuma’s chest and sending him sliding backward along the ground. Even caught off-guard, Orochimaru was blindingly fast.

“A worthless bluff. Your efforts are for naught.”

The Hydra’s body surged forward to descend on Kuma as he coated his palms in Armament Haki. In a blaze of movement, hundreds of Haki-powered air blasts tore through the air and assailed Orochimaru’s massive flame, but even as one head was battered to the side, another one descended into its place and snapped at Kuma.

WHAM!

He swung a powerful haymaker into the side of the Hydra’s skull, snapping its jaw to the side in a spray of blood and venom. It recoiled, hissing in pain. Kuma leapt into the air and backhanded another head out of the way before compressing air between his palms.

“Ursus Shock!”

Thrusting both hands down, a massive shockwave exploded from Kuma’s palms and blasted the Hydra’s torso downward, cratering it into the earth. Its reeling heads let out angry snarls.

Propelling himself forward again, Kuma lunged toward Boa once again, hand outstretched.

‘Make it in time…!’

“No you don’t!!!”

One of the Hydra’s many jaws lunged after him and snapped down on the airborne Kuma, ready to swallow him whole. As the bite clamped down, Kuma disappeared into his enemy’s mouth.

“No!” Boa cried, but a moment later the snake’s mouth was forced open again, Kuma’s arms and legs braced against the roof and base of the mouth. He grimaced as saliva dripped down on his damaged shoulder, sizzling furiously like acid.

“Ursus… Impact!”

Repulsive force exploded from both of Kuma’s palms, and the top of the Hydra’s head was blasted up, folding over backwards with such force that the top of its head struck the neck attached to it. Flopping over, the head crumpled to the ground and Kuma landed a short distance away. Rolling over to catch himself, his fist began to gleam, a powerful coating of Haki channeled around it.

The Hydra’s remaining heads swirled violently, glowering down at him as he stared back at it.

“I will gladly destroy you as many times as are necessary, Orochimaru.” Kuma declared, raising his voice for the first time. The Hydra leered at him.

“I believe you.”

Kuma took a deep breath, forced down the pain he felt from Orochimaru’s poison, and then set his jaw. It was obvious that the Hydra wouldn’t let him get to Hancock. He needed to strike. Throw away his caution, and send it flying hard enough that it wouldn’t get back up in time.

Without hesitation, he charged the Hydra. Rearing his fist back, his teeth clenched in determination, he prepared to throw the strongest punch he could into the massive creature – an attack on par with the one with which he had once struck Saturn, of the Five Elders. Within seconds, he was meters away from the Hydra, ready to strike-!

A person leapt in front of him, arms outstretched.

Kuma’s eyes widened in shock. His fist froze mid-punch, the Haki surrounding his fist vanishing. His determination gave way to confusion, for there was no way that this person could possibly be standing in front of him. 

“B…… Bonney…?”

“KUMA!”

CRUNCH!

Hancock’s cry of warning came too late. Blood and shrapnel exploded from Kuma’s chest and back. He staggered, and crumpled to his knees, eyes wide as he stared up at “Bonney”, whose face had contorted into a cruel grin, a blade of energy shimmering around her hand.

“Tsk, tsk,” she clicked her tongue, and her face morphed, her visage twisting until it had been replaced by Orochimaru’s. The shinobi gazed down at his defeated foe with smug condescension. “My, my… to be deceived by such a simple Genjutsu. I must admit, I expected far better.”

“…” Kuma’s head slumped down. The heartbroken betrayal he had felt a moment prior gave way to anger, at the man who had dared use his daughter’s face against him. Even so, for all the rage he felt at Orochimaru, he couldn’t manage the words. Slowly, he toppled over backward, blood pooling around him, the upper and lower halves of his body having been separated nearly completely by the slash.

‘Bonney…’

Orochimaru smiled down at his collapsed foe.

“Then again… I suppose that machines are boringly predictable.”

“ATTENTION ALL PARTICIPANTS! ONE OF THE WARLORDS OF THE SEA HAS DIED! FIVE REMAIN!”

Orochimaru’s eyebrows rose sharply as he glanced up at the sky. “Five? My, my. It seems we have less catching up to do than I had thought.” Without glancing at Kuma’s body, he turned and approached Boa, licking his lips as he moved forward with purpose. “Now, then, let’s make it four.”

“K…Kuma…” Boa trembled, bowing her head and gritting her teeth. Orochimaru’s hand shot out and closed around her throat, forcing her head back. She glared up at him furiously. “G-Guh…!”

As Orochimaru locked eyes with her, Boa felt a powerful tug at her soul, and in the blink of her eyes, their surroundings transformed. The ground beneath her feet had morphed into a dull, pink, flesh-like substance which extended as far as the eye could see. The sky was pitch-black.

Under normal circumstances, Boa might have questioned where they were. But her mind was not on that right now. Across from her, a mound of flesh rippled up from the ground, and as it parted, Orochimaru’s face peered out from it, his tongue lolling out.

“Confused? I don’t blame you. This is the universe inside of me. The mental space in which I can transfer my soul to my new vessels.”

‘Vessels?’

“Your body will be mine. And with it, that remarkable Mero Mero power you possess. The power to turn bodies to stone… your body must have quite the constitution to channel such power without drawback. That is something I can use.”

As he spoke, the flesh from the ground reached up and attached itself to Boa’s body, slowly growing across her. Around her, more mounds rippled up from the ground, the faces of unconscious people within them. Dozens… hundreds… the souls of those whose lives Orochimaru had stolen.

It made her sick to her stomach.

“Close your eyes, and spare yourself the view. It will all be over soon.”

Slowly, a sheen of energy began to ripple from Boa’s body, spreading outward across the flesh that was trying to consume her. Orochimaru chuckled.

‘Conqueror’s Haki… not unexpected. But it won’t work here. Only the Sharingan can pierce the veil of my mental universe.’

Orochimaru paused.

‘…?!’

As Mero Mero power rippled from Boa and mingled with her Haki, spreading across the flesh, it began to turn to stone.

“…Impossible.”

As the stone effect began to spread across the ground, Orochimaru’s flesh mound backed away, his confidence giving way to fear.

“Impossible! Only Sasuke has ever… without the Sharingan, you can’t possibly…!”

Boa’s head snapped up and her Haki rippled outward with greater intensity, the effect accelerating sharply and the wave of stone reaching Orochimaru, slowly beginning to spread up his body. Pure, unfiltered rage boiled in the Warlord’s eyes.

“I will kill you, scum. I’ll see you die in agony for what you did to Kuma.”

In her mind, Kuma’s words echoed, intermingling with the voice of a hero that she had met when she had been much younger.

“Do not fear. I will save you.”

Orochimaru’s eyes widened in anger and defiance. “I am Orochimaru. I have survived this before. I have survived everything! You’re nothing but a minor obstacle! You cannot defeat me! I will not die!”

With a final surge of Haki, the mental universe shattered into nothing.

—

It was an unusual feeling for Itachi, to not feel tired. To use his power freely without blood oozing from his eyes, without a hacking cough trying to force itself up from his mouth. He would need to thank Law when he saw him again. When the Warlord had finished obliterating every trace of illness from Itachi’s body, he had collapsed in exhaustion and told Itachi to go on without him. Which meant either he was still trapped in Tobi’s dimension, or had managed to teleport himself out and was now unconscious somewhere.

With his newfound power, Itachi could almost certainly have saved Nagato. He had seen Harribel coming. He had been fast enough to stop her. He had not done so.

Now, though, as the Akatsuki’s leader collapsed to the ground, mortally wounded, Itachi took action. He brought the Susanoo’s massive foot down toward Harribel and the collapsed Starrk. But with newfound strength – no doubt borne from adrenaline – Harribel rose her hands and caught the descending stomp, the ground around them rupturing violently from the force of the impact.

“Urgh…! Get up, Starrk!” she barked as she strained against the foot’s enormous weight. “We’ve nearly won!”

On his knees, blood seeping freely from the gashes on his chest, and from the arm stump that he was no longer bothering to hold together with Hierro, Starrk stared blankly at the ground.

“What’s the point?” he muttered. “She’s gone.”

“Damn it, Starrk, snap out of it!”

“Snap out of what?” he didn’t raise his voice or look at Harribel. “She was a part of me, and now she’s gone. You couldn’t possibly understand.”

“You can bring her back! Win that wish at the end, and bring her back!”

Starrk closed his eyes, shutting out Harribel’s voice. “You don’t care. Not really. You pretend to, but you don’t.” Harribel’s eyes widened sharply. Starrk’s voice was empty, detached. There was no anger or venom in it. He sighed. “I’m not the sort who minds things like that. But don’t tell me to get up when I’ve just lost everything.”

As the Susanoo’s foot pressed down harder and harder, Harribel’s arms quivered, and she slowly sank, crushed slowly into the ground with such force that it felt like her spine was being compressed. Starrk closed his eyes, and allowed himself to topple over onto his back, the blood pooling around him.

‘No…!’ Harribel gritted her teeth. ‘You can’t… give up…!’

…

…

…

One day prior…

Tension gripped Harribel’s shoulders as she stared out across the rolling sand dunes of Hueco Mundo. Though she knew that she wasn’t home in the world of Hollows, their captors had done such a good job of replicating the atmosphere that she couldn’t help but find slight comfort in the gentle breeze.

“Busy brooding?”

“Grimmjow,” She acknowledged her ally without turning toward him. “How is Ulquiorra?”

She could practically hear Grimmjow roll his eyes at the question. “Just as annoyed about the coddling as he was yesterday. You know that he doesn’t want us fussing over him, right?”

“His strength will be needed. It doesn’t matter whether he likes it.”

“He’s gonna end up doing something reckless if you keep him cooped up here.”

“I’m sure you would know all about recklessness.”

Grimmjow’s eyes narrowed as he glowered at her back. Letting out a grunt of annoyance, he dropped the subject.

“And you’re still planning to go through with the invasion tomorrow? It would be better to wait for Nel’s meeting with her little friends before you leave. Get as much intel as we can.”

“We already have intel. The sooner we move, the less opportunity for Nel’s intel to make its way back to Pain.” 

“And what happens if there’s more we still don’t know? What happened to you insisting on being cautious? We still don’t have shit on Pain, or half the bastards on that side. You could be running to your death.”

“Since when do you care about caution?” Harribel asked sharply, for the first time turning to face Grimmjow, who stared fearlessly back at her. “What happened to the brute who wanted nothing more than to recklessly fight Ichigo Kurosaki and die?”

“I can beat Kurosaki.”

“Please.”

“And I know that because I know Kurosaki. I don’t know these people. You’re being stupid.”

“I am doing what needs to be done, and you will fall in line if you know what’s good for you.”

“You’re doing what you think needs to be done. And you’re not the boss of me.”

As they spoke, the two stepped closer to one another until they were standing just a few feet apart. Their Reiatsu pressing back and forth, the rooftop beneath their feet quivering slightly from the pressure.

“Are Starrk and Baraggan on board with this?”

“They’re both itching to fight. And they know about Nel’s intel, I’ve told them.”

“Do they know that we’ll have more intel tomorrow? And that you’re charging in without that?” 

“They would agree with me.”

“So they don’t know!”

“Irrelevant.”

“This is why no one respects you!”

The marble under their feet cracked. A tense silence filled the air between the two of them. Harribel went very still as she stared coldly at Grimmjow, waiting for him to continue. For a moment, he hesitated, and then scoffed and ran a hand through his hair, frustrated.

“You call yourself our ‘leader,’ but you don’t understand any of us and don’t want to. You talk about a ‘better’ world for Hollows but never ask anyone what they want. You think the rest of us are violent monsters who only wanna fight and kill, and everyone sees it!” 

“Aren’t you?”

Grimmjow bristled, opening his mouth to retort. Then, he forced his mouth closed, scowled and turned away bitterly. Harribel waited for him to respond, and then continued with ice-cold calm.

“I must depart for Akatsuki territory soon. Baraggan is waiting there already, and Starrk will be coming tomorrow once he’s finished his turn with Ulquiorra. I need you to stay behind and keep an eye on Szayelaporro.”

“Eh?!”

“Nel as well, make sure she doesn’t get herself killed.”

“You’re benching me? Are you serious?”

“I need someone here that I trust, Grimmjow.”

“I could blow that city off the fucking map and you know it.”

“Have you been in contact with Nnoitra like I asked?”

“Stop ignoring me, you-”

“Grimmjow.”

“…Tch. Yeah. Yeah, I talked to Nnoitra. He’s raring to go.”

“Good.”

Grimmjow glared down at his feet. Harribel paused.

“This will work, Grimmjow. We’ll wipe both their bases out while they’re undefended.”

“And how many Espada will be left when you’re done?”

Harribel was silent for a moment as a Descorrer unfolded behind her, and she turned to enter it. As it snapped closed behind her, she spoke firmly and with finality.

“No one will die. I’ll make sure of it.”

—

“ATTENTION ALL PARTICIPANTS! ONE OF THE ESPADA HAVE DIED! FIVE REMAIN!”

The weight of the Susanoo’s foot pressed down on Harribel, but even as pain spasmed through her shoulders, her attention was locked on Starrk’s prone form, eyes closed as though he was sleeping even as blood pooled around him. 

“Get up!” she choked out sharply, her throat suddenly tight. “Starrk, get up!” 

He didn’t move. The Primera Espada, so strong that others could never get near him, dead just like that. Five Espada were left. Her. Baraggan, who had been sealed away. Who else? Grimmjow, Ulquiorra, Szayelaporro. Nel, Luppi, Nnoitra. Three of the six were dead.

“This is why no one respects you!”

“You don’t understand any of us and don’t want to.”

“You don’t care. Not really. You pretend to, but you don’t.”

She squeezed her eyes shut as exhaustion threatened to overtake her. She was so tired of it all. Tired of trying to lead the Espada. Tired of the thinly-veiled disrespect from the likes of Baraggan or Szayel, of being blamed for their complete inability to work together. Tired of feeling like it was always her who needed to put herself on the line.

And most of all, tired of the damn foot pressing down on her head.

CRUNCH!

As if on cue, the enormous weight left her shoulders and she staggered, eyes widening. Above her, the Susanoo toppled over, its chestplate having cracked from some kind of massive impact. As the gigantic avatar went sprawling, Harribel craned her neck upward toward the person who had just arrived.

“Good grief… I hate to say that I told you so, Harribel, but it looks like you’ve made a real mess of things.”

As the Descorrer snapped shut behind him, the man lowered the arm from which he had fired the Cero with a self-satisfied grin. Relief and frustration battled for dominance in Harribel’s mind, but in that moment, annoyance won out.

“Grimmjow! I told you to stay behind!”

“And I told you you’re not the fuckin’ boss of me!” Grimmjow blinked, registering her appearance. “Dunno if anyone’s told you, but you look like shit.”

Before Harribel could respond, a shadow was cast over both of them as the Perfect Susanoo rose into the air. Itachi swung the Totsuka Blade toward the midair Grimmjow, but with a burst of Sonído, he leapt over it and it split only the air.

“Well now…” Grimmjow put his hands in his pockets, and bared his teeth down at the Susanoo. “Let’s dance!”

—

‘Ha…’

The grass beneath him was cold against Orochimaru’s skin, in sharp contrast with the burning anger in his chest. As he struggled to sit up, pain flared through him.

‘Haaaa…’

Forcing himself up, he craned his neck down toward the stone that was slowly spreading up from his legs. Crouched on the ground just meters away, Boa had managed, with all her force of will, to raise a hand toward him, Mero Mero energy flowing from her outstretched palm.

‘Haaaaaa…!’

“Gah… noooo… nooooo!” Orochimaru let out a snarling hiss, and forming a chakra scalpel with his hand, he drove the blade down into his own stomach, hacking away at himself with a howl of pain and desperation. Trying to separate his petrified legs before the stone effect spread to the rest of his body.

Boa gritted her teeth and willed the effect to speed up, a vein bulging in her forehead as she strained. Under normal circumstances, she would have been able to paralyze a foe instantly, but between her use of the Mero Mero Cannon, the poison in her system, and Orochimaru’s body modifications, the slowed speed was the most she could manage.

As Orochimaru hacked away at the muscle and sinew connecting his upper half to his lower, his finger brushed up against the stone, and in that split second the effect transferred to the finger. With a gasp, he jerked his hand back, but the damage had been done and his hand began to turn. Without hesitation, he carved the hand off with his opposite arm.

“You little…!” He resumed hacking away at himself, but as the petrification spread, he had to begin sawing at higher and higher parts of his body. “You think you’ll get your way?! You think you can stop me?! How dare you?!”

Boa stared coldly, mercilessly down at him, not even slightly wavering as she ruthlessly pushed the effect forward. At her current level of exhaustion, she couldn’t allow her concentration to waver even slightly.

“I will not stop. I will not yield. You miscalculated, challenging me, Orochimaru. Now, die screaming.”

Orochimaru bared his teeth furiously, and with his remaining hand formed several hand seals.

“Hancock!” he wailed, and suddenly his face was no longer Orochimaru’s at all. Monkey D. Luffy trembled as he struggled to drag himself away, the petrification effect slowly rising up his body. “What’re you doing?! Stop it, you’re hurting me!”

Boa didn’t even flinch. “You won’t fool me with that trick the way you did Kuma.”

“Empress! Stop it, Empress!” Wails rose up all around her as the women of Amazon Lily emerged from the trees, her sisters Marigold and Sandersonia forefront among them. “You’ve lost your mind! You’re hallucinating!”

“Begone!” A wave of Conqueror’s Haki rippled from Boa and shattered the illusory women like glass. In the momentary diversion, the petrification rising up the fake Luffy’s body slowed slightly.

The ground beneath Boa fell away. The fake Luffy vanished, and laughter echoed in her mind that made her blood run cold. The laughter of Celestial Dragons.

‘…No…’

She squeezed her eyes closed, forcing herself to concentrate. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. Orochimaru was making a desperate attempt to disrupt her. Still, their voices cut through her mind like a knife, their shadows dancing in her mind.

“Fuhihihi! Go on, dance for me, little girl!”

“Don’t look at me. Don’t speak. Slaves don’t speak.”

“The vermin thought they could escape! How adorable!”

“If you don’t cooperate, then maybe those sisters of yours will.”

“You’re a pretty little piece of garbage, aren’t you?”

In the darkness, a single tear traced down Boa’s cheek. In that moment, no matter how hard she tried to stay strong…

Sharp pain spiked through the side of her neck, and with a gasp she came back to reality, the world slamming back in like a sledgehammer. Across her skin, black markings rippled, binding her in place as Orochimaru extricated himself from her, his fangs having sunk into the base of her neck. His body had returned to normal, her concentration broken.

With a self-satisfied smile, Orochimaru spoke cheerfully. “I win.”

“…Coward.” It came out as a whisper, as Boa sat frozen, the Curse Mark that had been placed on her suppressing her Haki and Devil Fruit just as well as her movements. “To stoop to a tactic so low… because you couldn’t win fairly…”

“You’re right,” Orochimaru shrugged, straightening up and glancing down at his tattered, blood-soaked clothes. His wounds had already healed. “But I still won anyway.”

Boa closed her eyes, defeated but still defiant. “Get it over with.”

CRASH!

Orochimaru turned, surprised. A couple dozen meters away from where they stood, something had plummeted from the sky and impacted the ground with such force that a cloud of dust had erupted upward. “Oh?”

Boa’s breath caught in her throat and stayed there for several long moments. Who was this? Were they friend? Foe? Neither? Was it somehow possible that they would get her out of this?

From the dust, a figure straightened up. With dawning recognition, Orochimaru’s eyes gleamed.

“My, my… what have we here?”

—

Several minutes earlier…

Grimmjow and Itachi blazed through the sky at blinding speed, the Sexta Espada’s Sonído effortlessly outpacing the giant chakra avatar’s massive bulk. For all the speed and precision of Itachi’s sword strikes, Grimmjow was making dodging look easy.

“You got a lot of power, big guy,” he called out, hands still in his pockets. “But you’re slow!”

“Amaterasu!”

From the Susanoo’s eye, a stream of fire exploded into existence, consuming the air before him, everything in Itachi’s line of vision. But as Grimmjow dashed through the sky and the flames followed him, he managed to remain ahead of Itachi’s gaze. Even still, the temperature pressed against his back.

“Whew! Too hot to handle!”

Twisting his body midair so that he was facing the Susanoo, Grimmjow thrust his palm forward, the force of his shove releasing a Cero that blasted through the flames toward the Susanoo’s head. Sharply, however, the Susanoo raised the Yata Mirror and absorbed the impact. Even still, the sheer force of the Cero pushed it backward, grinding against the gigantic shield with immense force.

Grimmjow grinned. “Not half bad…”

A roar interrupted his thoughts, as behind him, three gigantic wood dragons sprouted up and towered over him. On the ground below, Tobi gazed calmly up at the battle, hands clasped into a seal. Turning to glance at the dragons, Grimmjow’s smile widened.

“Not half bad at all!”

Whirling about, he hurled another Cero toward the dragons, but in an instant Harribel materialized in the air between them and swatted the attack aside with her trident before it could reach them. Grimmjow’s smile vanished, replaced by annoyance.

“Oi, the hell was that for-?”

“They absorb energy! Stick to physical strikes! I’ll deal with the Susanoo!”

As Harribel vanished, Grimmjow threw his arms up in frustration. Though he didn’t turn away from the dragons, he shouted over his shoulder.

“I coulda figured that out! And I don’t need your help!”

Harribel dashed toward the quickly-recovering Susanoo, and spun out of the way of one-, two-, three stabs from the Totsuka Blade, spinning her trident as she prepared an attack. With a flare of Amaterasu, however, the Totsuka Blade ignited in black flames and then swung downward, prepared to eradicate Harribel right out of the air. But as it descended, she concentrated all her power into the very tips of her trident and thrust it upward to meet the strike.

“Purofrío!”

As flames met water, Harribel forced the tip of her trident to as low a temperature as possible – an effect not unlike that of a Shinigami she had once done battle with. As overwhelming heat met with her trident, the black flames along the length of the Totsuka Blade were blasted out of existence, negated by the tip of the attack.

As the Susanoo was unbalanced midair, Harribel spun her trident and then hurled it forward like a javelin, directly into the center of its giant chest, before hammering Ceros into the hilt of the trident, burying it deeper and deeper and forcing Itachi back.

On the other side of the battlefield, Grimmjow’s fists and feet slammed wood dragons aside with the force of a piston, each strike cracking their sides into splinters. As they went reeling, Grimmjow fell back and hopped from foot to foot midair, throwing out several jab punches into the air as he prepared for them to advance again.

“C’mon! I’m not even warmed up yet!”

Suddenly, his Pesquisa detected a massive surge of energy, and he turned in place with slight dismay. As Harribel faced the Susanoo in the distance, blood rippled and congealed into a ball in front of her, which then morphed into pure, swirling energy. It had reached the level of a Gran Rey Cero, and was still growing. At this rate…

‘Shit.’

Abandoning his fight with the wood dragons, Grimmjow sprinted through the air toward Harribel, but he had barely crossed any distance before three more wood dragons erupted in front of him, halting him in his tracks. On the ground below, Tobi called up to him.

“I think you’d best stay right where you are.”

“Idiot!” Grimmjow snapped. “Harribel’s going too far! She could destroy this whole place!”

As the energy swirled about Harribel, the last dregs of power her Segunda Etapa form drained from her body and mixed in with the well of energy forming in front of her. Her Resurrección went next, Reiatsu seeming to melt off of her as she reverted to her base form. Every last bit of power she had… she would put it into this next attack.

‘Starrk… Baraggan… everyone else…’ It was clear to her now that leading the Espada had been a task beyond her. She had tried, so very hard, but she had failed, and her subordinates had paid the price. Now, at least, she could make up for it by putting everything she had into this final attack. The attack that would defeat Itachi and win the battle for the Espada.

Within the head of the Susanoo, Itachi’s eyes followed the flow of energy into the swirling mass. As Harribel drained her own energy, it would have been a perfect time to strike, but the sheer overwhelming force amassing before her was so great that even the Susanoo was struggling to approach.

‘I can block it,’ Itachi told himself, forcefully. ‘The Yata Mirror. The Totsuka Blade. The Perfect Susanoo. I can stop any attack she throws out!’

Raising the Yata Mirror, he braced for the attack. From a distance, Grimmjow watched in dismay and Tobi in silence.

Blinding light illuminated the afternoon sky. Everything was silent. And then a moment later, it was deafening.

The attack split the air between Harribel and Itachi. Space tore clean through, and everything in the path of the blast, every last air particle, was reduced to something less than subatomic particles. The arena didn’t shake. It froze, as though it had been petrified in place under the sheer pressure of the attack.

The Cero struck the Yata Mirror and didn’t slow down, plowing right through and spearing into the Susanoo’s chest. In an instant, its armor exploded outward like shrapnel, and the frame of the Susanoo dissolved. Though the Susanoo itself didn’t dissipate entirely, it rapidly shrunk until it was nothing more than a rib cage clinging to Itachi’s frame, hurled eastward into the air like a meteor.

Itachi sharply coughed up blood, stars dancing in front of his vision as he struggled to remain conscious. Though he himself had not been hit, the strain of his Susanoo shattering racked his body violently. Dimly, he registered the crater shrinking into the far distance, already kilometers away as he hurtled backward.

‘Guh-!’

Forcing himself into action, the Totsuka Blade rematerialized in the Susanoo’s hand, now much smaller. Right now, his focus wasn’t on surviving the impact wherever he ended up. It was on Harribel, who stood undefended. With a heave, the Susanoo hurled the Totsuka Blade like a spear, and a shockwave rippled out as it left his hand, soaring into the far distance toward its target.

Harribel panted, rubble raining down around her as the Gran Dios Cero crackled, an energy wave rippling outward across the arena as the attack dissipated. Finally, like a delayed reaction, the arena shuddered. The ocean to the south churned. Las Noches trembled to the far east, its windows cracking as the wave passed over it.

Swaying slightly, Harribel felt a moment’s relief. Tobi aside, Itachi had been their last major obstacle. The fight was-

“HARRIBEL, MOVE!”

She had no time to react to Grimmjow’s voice as pain exploded through her chest, as she was hurled from the sky, speared downward as the Totsuka Blade drove down through her heart. Eyes wide, she slammed to a halt against the ground, speared into it with such force that debris tumbled down the sides of the Rain Village crater.

‘A-Ah.’

Defeat settled in Harribel’s chest. No death announcement had sounded for Itachi, and he’d had the strength and awareness to launch a final strike when her guard was down. Blood seeped into the ground beneath her. Without its gourd, the Totsuka Blade alone could not seal her away, but even so she had no illusions about being able to survive the wound that had now been inflicted on her.

Her final attempt to turn things around had been an abject failure. Espadas one through three had all been defeated. They had lost.

Four Espada were left. Grimmjow. Baraggan. Two others. Who were they? She had no time to figure it out. Dimly, she hoped that Nel was alive. As the strength fled her body, she found herself thinking about the Fish-Man she had slain, and the way he had smiled in the face of his own death, in spite of his regrets.

As her eyes slid closed, she wondered how he had found the strength.

“ATTENTION ALL PARTICIPANTS! ONE OF THE ESPADA HAVE DIED! FOUR REMAIN!”

In the distance, Grimmjow stared down morosely at Harribel’s pinned form, his good mood from earlier squashed. Frustration bubbled up in him as a Descorrer unfolded behind him, and he disappeared into it.

‘What a damn waste…’

—

From the smoking crater that his impact had blasted into the soil of the Forest of Death, Itachi straightened up. His body was sore all over, and even with the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan his eyes throbbed slightly from how much he had been pushing them. He had used up the vast majority of his chakra.

‘I still haven’t mastered these new powers yet… I need to be careful.’

As he stepped out of the crater, the two figures before him came into view and he stopped short, eyebrows raising at the sight of one of his oldest enemies.

“My, my… what have we here?”

“Orochimaru,” he greeted, though immediately his guard went up. “It’s been a long time.”

“Itachi,” Orochimaru replied with a soft hiss, eyes gleaming. “It most certainly has.”

At Orochimaru’s feet, a woman knelt, black patterning having spread across her body; the patterning distinct to Orochimaru’s Cursed Seal of Heaven. The one that had once afflicted Itachi’s brother, Sasuke. Indeed, with his Sharingan, Itachi spotted the cluster of chakra at the base of the woman’s neck that must have been the Curse Mark’s location. It appeared that Orochimaru had her restrained.

“Snatching another body, Orochimaru?” he asked, the Sharingan deactivating. “You truly are a glutton.”

Orochimaru glanced down at Boa, and then back up at Itachi. A slight hunger flickered in his eyes.

“Such was the plan,” he replied. He turned to address the woman. “But Ms. Hancock, it seems it’s your lucky day. You just became Plan B.”

He snapped his fingers, and with a flare of the chakra implanted into her neck, Hancock slumped to the ground, unconscious. Orochimaru turned toward Itachi, who regarded him warily.

“You intend to try to steal my body, again? Surely you must know that this will not end well, after last time.”

“I am a different man than I once was,” Orochimaru replied airily, “in some respects literally. I think you’ll find me a more formidable challenge.”

“I find that doubtful. Your power has never been anything compared to the Sharingan.”

“Shall we bet on it, then? If I win, I take your body. If you win, you take my life.”

Itachi appraised him cautiously. He had defeated Orochimaru before with little trouble, but it would have been foolish of him to disregard the legendary shinobi’s confidence out of hand. Still… even if Orochimaru had surpassed his previous level of power, Itachi had too. Even at low chakra, the idea that Orochimaru could defeat the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan…

“I agree to your terms.” Itachi raised two fingers in front of his chest – the shinobi combat salute.

Orochimaru smiled, and raised his fingers as well. “Then let us begin.”

—

The sound of soft footsteps filled Nagato’s ears. As the blood had slowly left his body, so too had the vitality that he had absorbed from Harribel. Now, the battle having reached its end, the Akatsuki’s leader lay emaciated once more, his sallow skin clinging to his bones. 

“What a disappointment you turned out to be.”

Though he couldn’t see the man standing over him, Nagato recognized him. “Madara.”

His voice came out a feeble croak. Bizarrely, he found his mind wandering for a moment to the frogs that had always accompanied Master Jiraiya.

…So this was what death felt like. His every thought felt so much more wasteful, all of a sudden.

“I’m sorry, my lord,” he forced out. “I wasn’t able to carry out your plan, as intended.”

Tobi was silent.

“What will your plan be now… without me to lead the Akatsuki…?”

Tobi was silent.

“I see… no words for a failure. That’s fine. Even if I can’t carry out our plan myself…” He coughed, and blood spilled from the corners of his mouth. “I can at least ensure the Akatsuki will have a better chance of winning the war.”

Weakly, he raised his hands up in front of his face, clasping them together and interlocking his fingers as if praying silently. Calling upon the power of his last and greatest path, the Outer Path, this hand seal would activate Rinne Rebirth: the jutsu that could revive the dead at the cost of the caster’s life.

Nagato would die, but the rest of the Akatsuki would live again.

‘Konan…’

Nagato was certain that the announcement earlier had been for her… though he had no way of being certain that Orochimaru or Zetsu were alive, he knew it in his heart.

He would bring her back. He had already lost one friend to the cruelties of the world. He wouldn’t-

Squelch!

Nagato screamed in shock and pain as fingers plunged down into his eye socket, curling around his Rinnegan eye. His vision blurred, and then went black as the orb was ripped clean from his skull.

“That’s quite enough of that.”

Tobi spoke calmly, conversationally. Crouched down next to Nagato, he tossed the eyeball in his hand.

“Wh… why-?!”

Tobi reached down, and in an instant had plucked the other Rinnegan from Nagato’s eye socket, and he again let out a feeble wail of pain, which devolved into a violent cough, blood gurgling from his mouth.

Tobi straightened up, and slid his mask to the side as he reached up to pluck at his own left eye. As he worked, he spoke.

“The rest of the Akatsuki are better off dead, I’m afraid. They mean nothing to me. Nor did you, for that matter.”

Having successfully extracted his useless left eye, with which he had used Izanagi to restore Itachi’s vision earlier, he crushed the sightless orb into pulp. Raising one of the two Rinnegan to eye level, he pressed it into his empty socket, and with the slightest spurt of chakra, sealed the blood vessels and nerve endings in his socket to the base of the eye.

Blinking sharply, he replaced the mask over his face. As he finished, the announcer’s voice sounded.

“ATTENTION ALL PARTICIPANTS! ONE OF THE AKATSUKI HAVE DIED! FOUR REMAIN!”

Tobi didn’t even glance down at Nagato’s corpse. He had no concern for broken tools. His thoughts were only of the war ahead.

Four left. Itachi. Orochimaru. Zetsu. Tobi. In spite of the grim number, Tobi chuckled darkly.

“Apologies, Nagato.” A vortex swirled around his eye, and his body seemed to fold into itself, twisting into the vortex. “But I can win this war all by myself.”

—

A Descorrer unfolded within Las Noches, and from it Grimmjow stepped out, hands in his pockets. As it zipped closed behind him, he stood still for several long moments, the blank white hallway stretching in either direction.

“…”

It was quiet.

Slowly, Grimmjow trudged down the hallway. Normally when he came back from battle, his thoughts were only ever on the thrills of the hunt, but now he found he didn’t have the energy. Throwing open the doors to the Espada’s meeting room, he was greeted by the sight of the long table at the center of the room. Empty chairs lined either side, leading up to the seat at the head of the table.

The seat where Harribel had sat, and Aizen before her.

Slowly, Grimmjow walked to the end of the table, and reached to pull out the chair. But as he set his hand on it, he hesitated for a moment.

Suddenly, the sound of muffled footsteps echoed from the hall, and as he turned sharply, hand on his sword hilt, the door to the room burst open and Nel staggered in. The front of her clothes were still stained with blood, but her eyes were wide and panicked as she panted for breath.

“Grimmjow!”

Grimmjow let go of his sword hilt with a grunt of greeting. “Oi.”

“What happened?! I heard the announcement, they said there are only four of us left-”

Grimmjow raised a hand and she cut herself off, trembling with anxiety. He sighed.

“You. Me. Szayel. Baraggan.”

Nel was silent, and then swayed on her feet, leaning against the wall and sliding downward.

“No way… Harribel…” Her shoulders hunched. “Wh-what have I done…?”

Grimmjow rolled his eyes. “You were unconscious. Ain’t your fault, you couldn’t have done anything.” Vaguely, he registered that he wasn’t sure why he was reassuring her.

“I…! I leaked intel-”

“I know.”

Nel stared at him.

“Harribel knew too.” It wasn’t a lie, of course. As for how Harribel had felt about the situation… Well, there was no need to tell her everything. Nel was silent as she processed the information. Then, shakily…

“H-how did it happen? How did they all…”

Grimmjow gave her a brief overview. He left out some of the less relevant details.

“…Why didn’t you go?”

“Eh?”

“Why didn’t you go to help them?”

“You can’t be serious. I did go, were you even listening?”

“Not then! I mean from the beginning!”

“Harribel ordered me not to.”

“Since when do you follow orders?!” Nel’s voice had raised to a shout. Grimmjow opened his mouth to shout back, but the words died in his throat when he saw the tears glistening in the woman’s eyes. He sighed and looked away as she scrubbed her eyes furiously.

“I didn’t agree with her. I don’t think she was cut out to lead us. But I ain’t about to start questioning her final decisions, and neither should you. She got what it meant to take on that responsibility, put her own life on the line, and I respect the hell out of that.”

“…Y…Yeah.”

Grimmjow turned to glance back at the chair at the head of the table. It hadn’t struck him until now how tall it was.

“…That’s the kind of king I’ll be.”

“H-Huh?”

“Difference is,” Grimmjow grinned. “I’ll be so strong that I won’t die.”

Turning away from the throne, he marched through the doors at the end of the room. As Nel watched him go, she called after him.

“Where are you going?”

“To talk to Szayel!” Grimmjow called back, without slowing down. “I’ve got a new job for him.”

—

As the shore line came into view, illuminated by the light of the setting sun, a man dashed for the ocean as fast as he could. He had been running for what felt like half the day, and was nearly certain that he had left those he was running from behind… but one could never be too careful. But as he ran, exhaustion was the last thing on Buggy the Clown’s mind.

‘Rendezvous point… rendezvous point… rendezvous point…!’

Chanting the words over and over again in his head, Buggy raced toward the very center point of the arena, where the three territories all intersected. It was there that Mihawk had ordered him to go, in order to meet up with the swordsman once the attack on Marineford had been dealt with.

In the time since he had parted from Kuma and Hancock, however, an announcement had played to signify the death of a Warlord. Not only that, it had declared that there were only five people remaining, when last he had heard, there had been eight. And other than Buggy himself, he had no clue who the five were.

Kuma and Hancock… at least one of those two must have been alive, since only one announcement had played since he had seen them last. Mihawk, Blackbeard, Law, Doflamingo… who else…? Jinbe! Of those five, at least two were dead – possibly three, if both Kuma and Hancock had survived.

‘Mihawk wouldn’t die…’ Buggy told himself. ‘He wouldn’t, I know he wouldn’t… who the hell else will protect me?!’

As the rendezvous point came into view, Buggy scanned the beach, and felt a wave of relief wash over him as he spotted Mihawk’s tiny ship resting on the sand. Putting on extra speed, he reached it in a matter of moments, and pulled back the sail.

“Mihawk-!”

“Be quiet, fool.”

Buggy shrieked and clamped his hands over his mouth. Mihawk sat with his back to the ship’s mast. He had removed his hat and jacket, only his white button-up remaining, and Yoru and Samehada were propped against the edge of the boat. Most striking, however, and the reason for Buggy’s scream, was the fact that Mihawk was soaked in blood.

“Buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-bluh-…bl-!”

“Yes, fool, it’s blood,” Mihawk snapped, and looked away. “It’s not mine. Mostly.”

“…Blackbeard?”

“No, not his either.” Mihawk was silent for a moment. “The Akatsuki girl.”

“…Oh.” Buggy swallowed. “…Did you…kill-?”

“No. Blackbeard did it.”

Buggy fell silent for a moment. Then…

“Did you win?”

Mihawk sighed. “…No.” He turned to look at Buggy, grimly. “Marineford is gone.”

Buggy gaped. “G-Gone?! Like… gone, gone?”

“Sunk beneath the waves.”

“…And Blackbeard?”

“Escaped.” As Buggy opened his mouth to ask another question, Mihawk raised a hand to silence him, and continued. “I miscalculated. I believed my ability to see the future was enough to prevent what I saw… but it seems Blackbeard has mastered that power as well. He is growing at a terrifying rate. Which makes the future very uncertain indeed.”

Buggy swallowed heavily, but didn’t respond. Slowly, Mihawk continued, his voice tired, as though every word burdened him.

“Law was right. We ought to have focused our attention on Teach from the beginning, and now I fear it may be too late.”

He closed his eyes in resignation.

“Blackbeard is stronger than I am.”

—

“It appears that everything has gone exactly as you planned, sire.”

“Of course it did!” Blackbeard guffawed as he gnawed on a turkey leg, the shadowy miasma of his dark realm swirling around him. “These brainless monkeys were never gonna be on the same page!”

“Still,” Black Zetsu continued. “Things have gone far better than we ever dared hope. The Akatsuki and Warlord strongholds have fallen, and both the Akatsuki and Espada leaders have perished. Mihawk has fled with his tail between his legs, and you are growing stronger by the day. Not to mention, that power is now ours to command…”

As he spoke, far away, a figure emerged from the Forest of Death, Akatsuki robes shifting like shadows in the moonlight. He staggered over to a nearby pool and fell to his knees, splashing water into his face. After a few moments, his gaze turned up toward the distant sunset.

In his realm, Blackbeard laughed. “Zehaha! Don’t keep me waiting! Let me see that pretty new face of yours.”

From the shadows at his feet, a tall figure – much taller than Black Zetsu was normally – rose up. Half of his body had been merged with Zetsu; the other half, his one visible eye, gazed forward in a trance-like state. Blackbeard stood up from his throne, and moved to examine him more closely. 

“Zehahaha… gooood boy, Zetsu. It was about time those annoying little wannabe heroes were out of the picture.”

As Black Zetsu contorted Law’s face into a mad grin, hundreds of kilometers away, Orochimaru gazed upon the sunset through Itachi’s eyes, a small smile of satisfaction and contentment on his face.

“Now, Zetsu…” Blackbeard spread his arms wide, triumph in his eyes. “Make me immortal.”

…

…

…

…

…

END OF CHAPTER 3

(1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10)