122 – Wrong Place

122 – Wrong Place

Once they clashed the assassin could no longer maintain whatever ability was granting their limited stealth capabilities and their true form was unveiled.

As he had expected it was indeed an Arrancar. Their almost entirely human-like body with a fragment over their mask covering the lower half of their face gave them away. Their physique was rather small and slender compared to most other male Arrancar he had seen and their Zanpakuto rather than being in the shape of a katana was shaped like a rapier ready to pierce anything in its path.

Based on their physique, techniques and Zanpakuto Hisashi was fairly certain assassination was their specialty. It would explain the quick drop off in force the moment he blocked the attack. Relying on stealth, speed and bursts of power rather than sustained strength.

Cirucci looked back to find out what the sudden sounds were. Her eyes went wide the moment she saw someone had come within inches of piercing her head if not for Hisashi's interference. She hadn't even noticed their approach. Her eyes darted between the attacker facing her and Hisashi's back as he guarded her. She frowned.

Hisashi spun around parrying the rapier blade by deflecting it to the side and following up with a downward slash that severed the Arrancar's outstretched hand.

"Aaah!!!" he screamed out holding on to the stump that was left of the arm. Given that he was an Arrancar that would be a much more serious injury than it was to Adjuchas if he had forsaken his regeneration during his transformation needing outside intervention just to reattach.

A moment after he realised his attack failed he tried to hop backwards out of range, but despite having used two of his arms to block and sever their arm he still had two more. One of which caught him just below the knee before he managed to get out of range sending him rolling on the ground.

Both sides of the conflict had come to a halt surprised by the sudden intervention by a third party. Unsure which side they were on if any.

'Now that Arrancar are attacking none of them can survive if I don't want this to get back to Las Noches,' he thought.

He dashed towards where the unknown Arrancar had landed at only a fraction of his top speed, but now that one of their legs was severed their speed that he already felt lacking had become even less impressive.

With one smooth slash he beheaded him sending their head flying. It seemed their build was an even more extreme version of his own with everything invested in speed and burst damage. Unfortunately he came across someone that outclassed him in the very thing he excelled at. Once he lost the element of surprise he was no more than a sitting duck.

He sighed. "Such a shame that weakling failed at even completing the one task I gave him. Although you're still the same pathetic mewling quim you've always been it would have been best if the strongest amongst you could have been picked off before the fight even started. Wouldn't want you escaping and divulging what happened here," he said.

He shook his head. "Well... not that it matters that much if a slightly stronger ant partakes. I can still easily crush you all," he said.

Cirucci glared at him. "You bastard!" She spat out through gritted teeth.

Nnoitra made a hand signal and multiple other Arrancar showed up surrounding the clearing.

'I don't recognise any of them. They must be nobodies here to fill the ranks,' Hisashi thought.

Since Nnoitra only had one member in his Fracción there were many Arrancar eager to join the Fracción of an Espada. Just the possibility alone was enough to motivate them to betray them. As long as Las Noches never found out it couldn't harm them.

Hisashi smiled softly. "So... now that you've got us here... isolated... would you be so kind as to tell us what has brought this on?" He asked despite knowing exactly what his motivations should be.

Nnoitra smirked. "It can't be helped. If you weren't part of that bitches Fracción maybe you could have been useful minions. I've been waiting a long time for an opportunity. I destroyed her once then she comes back and not only has her power been restored she has a bunch of allies with high potential. That's unacceptable. Unfortunately my options in Las Noches are limited," he said.

He grit his teeth. "I thought Szayelaporro could be useful, but right when he was supposed to make a move that weakling ran away like a coward. So scared she might come to look for him. I'm not a weakling like him though..." he said.

Hisashi nodded. "I see... I see. Did you ever consider you weren't the only one scheming though?" He asked. His mouth slowly formed a smirk.

Nnoitra tilted his head in confusion. "What?" He said.

The sound of Sonído echoed once again.