Chapter 98: Chapter 94 - A Wrong Turn
"This world judges me by the decisions I make. Never does it see the options I had to choose from." — Itachi Uchiha.
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Might makes right. That was the principle on which Las Noches, and its extension the entirety of Hueco Mundo, was built on.
Baraggan's might created the rules other Hollows followed by, whether in or out of Las Noches. And those who erred in any way were found under the punishment of the king, unless they were strong enough to fight back… but no Hollow was that powerful, or courageous to fight Baraggan. The most they could do was escape before the king personally came after them.
Observing the Hollows in such close vicinity reassured Itachi that no, neither him nor the Gotei 13 was wrong in their indiscriminate killing of any Hollow they found outside Hueco Mundo.
Itachi's honest opinion of them was that they were rabid savages. And that Hollows like Starrk and Lilynette were the outliers, not biased ignorance on his part.
Itachi spectated some of the fights he came across, quickly waving them off when he failed to find anything interesting about it, while slowly and quickly listening to whatever was being discussed as he made himself go deeper into Las Noches.
So far, he had heard nothing worthwhile, i.e. Shinigami related, except hollow gossip about some Hollows that were being hunted by the Hollows of Las Noches – some having been killed while some were lucky to escape and hide.
Itachi's news source, one of the lanky Hollows with extra long arms and a tail, was cut off when he, and everybody in the room, felt an explosion of Reiatsu coming from the direction of the frontal gate.
The familiar burst of Reiatsu made him furrow his brows in his disguise before schooling his expression and looking helpless as he followed the other Hollows towards where the impressive Reiatsu came from.
"What's happening here?" The lanky Hollow asked with his low hum shrill voice.
The scene they arrived at was an odd one that had a group of Hollows surrounding just two Hollows; a man and a little girl.
"Louisenrerg, these two Hollows barged into Las Noches without an invitation so we tried to apprehend them, but that little girl had a mouth that wouldn't stop running," the one doing the report pointed at Lilynette who stood protected behind the pacifist Starrk, "She attacked out of nowhere when that guy tried to shut her up."
Itachi half thought this was a ploy to rat him out but the hostility that was being radiated by the Hollows wasn't something that could be faked.
The lanky Hollow, Louisenrerg, growled threateningly at Starrk and Lilynette slowly stalked over to them.
He towered over Starrk, whose neck barely crossed his stomach area, effectively glaring down at the both of them.
Starrk had an apologetic look on his face while Lilynette glared back at Louisenrerg, looking both unrepentant and unintimidated in the presence of the tall Adjuchas Hollow.
"I sincerely apologize on behalf of my companion. As an Adjuchas too, I'm sure you know how it is sometimes when you come across powerful Adjuchas like yourself." Starrk pleaded in hopes of convincing these Hollows to look over this slight altercation.
In hindsight, he shouldn't have let Lilynette confront any of the Hollows here. The Cero she fired at the Hollow was barely strong enough to be classified as a Cero blast from an Adjuchas-level Hollow, so other than missing an arm the Hollow survived.
"An Adjuchas, huh." Louisenrerg eyed the pair of peculiar looking Hollows that was Starrk and Lilynette, eyes squinting narrowly on their prominent human features.
Itachi, still in his disguise, inwardly sighed in relief when he saw that it was Starrk doing the talking and not Lilynette. If Louisenrerg was clearheaded, he had no doubt that this minor squabble would be resolved—
"I'm afraid I can't do that. You see, your friend there attacked one of my subordinates so she'll have to pay back in kind, in equal proportions to what he suffered from her."
"This is going a bit too far, no?" Starrk said with a difficult face. The plead in his eyes were all too clear for everyone to see.
"I don't see it that way. An eye for an eye." Louisenrerg stated with an air of finality, challenging Starrk with a dead stare to try and say otherwise. "Or in this case, an arm for an arm."
The surrounding Hollows cried out in excitement, chanting Louisenrerg's name in approval as he commanded that justice be served.
'They truly are rabid creatures. Seeking after violence and brutality for the smallest slight.' Amaterasu scoffed in disdain at the over the top behavior of the surrounding Hollows.
No one had to tell Itachi what was about to happen and he had to move accordingly to how Starrk and the other stronger Hollows in Las Noches moved.
So far he hasn't heard a peep about any visiting Shinigami but there was a chance, a very tiny one, that only Baraggan would know of such a thing – if any such meeting had taken place.
But he doubted it.
He stopped that train of thought when Louisenrerg tried moving behind Starrk and grabbing Lilynette, but his attempt was bound to fail as at that very moment the tiny seal Itachi had been using to regulate his monstrous Reiatsu broke from the slightest action of Starrk utilizing his Reiatsu.
In an instant, in the blink of an eye, the full brunt of a Vasto Lorde's Reiatsu swept over the entirety of Las Noches. The air grew thicker and the ground cracked in fragility, gravity rose in intensity and the sky darkened all over this Hollow city of Black Nights.
Itachi saw the astonishing phenomenon of weaker souls crumbling dead under the pressure of a vastly stronger one when all the Hollows around Starrk and Lilynette, one by one, started falling down as cracks started appearing on their masks and over every part of their body.
Louisenrerg was frozen in his steps, eyes glazed over as Starrk's soul pressure washed all over every single part of his soul.
All he knew— no that wasn't right. He couldn't comprehend anything in his current state. The only thing his existence knew was death. There was no surviving whatever being was in front of him, his very soul understood it so clearly that it robbed him of all his senses so he wouldn't put up a futile struggle against that 'thing'.
Except that Starrk wasn't interested in fighting anyone. Not Shinigami and definitely not Hollows. In fact, his act of releasing his Reiatsu was by pure mistake, nothing more nothing less.
Whether Itachi meant it, intentionally or not, his fingers twitched and hovered oh so closely to the hilt of his sword.
It was like Kenpachi all over again, but this time the taint of a Hollow was so intimately intertwined with the spirit pressure that it was an attack on its own to any unprotected and weaker soul.
"Let's go, Lilynette. Hm?" Starrk turned to Lilynette, who had lost all her smugness as she watched the slowly increasing corpses of Hollows around them, but noticed from the edge of his vision a Hollow that seemed relatively fine.
"Is that you, Itachi?" His unchecked spiritual pressure affected Itachi's illusion to the point that Itachi's disguise became wobbly and unstable.
"We're leaving, now!" Itachi sounded very urgent as he dispelled his transformation and broke off into a sprint towards the gate, Starrk following closely by his side.
"….I didn't mean to do that." Starrk's words sounded hurt as he said that, a feeling no doubt shared by Lilynette as she ran alongside them.
"It doesn't matter–" Itachi's words fell short as another wave of Reiatsu fell over Hueco Mundo, this one more menacing and dreadful than Starrk's.
It was so baleful that Lilynette started choking on air, being the weakest of the three, while Itachi covered his eyes with slightly labored breaths.
The only one without any adverse reaction was Starrk who now had a rare serious expression on his usual blank. He picked up Lilynette and threw her over his shoulders and without saying a word, both he and Itachi disappeared from where they had been and appeared on the huge wall surrounding Las Noches, looking back to see only a baleful black swallowing where they had been.
"Who dares act presumptuously in this king's palace?"
If Starrk's spiritual pressure had promised death to those weaker than him, the Reiatsu that accompanied those powerful words affirmed it in every way. It was no mere promise — it was a natural truth.
All who stand against Baraggan Louisenbairn, God-king of Hueco Mundo, will die.
They could feel it bearing down on their necks, as if the very hands on death was behind them.
Starrk could shake it off and Itachi forcibly calmed himself to think straight and clear, but Lilynette had fainted.
"Worms who scurry away in the presence of this king. Death calls your name. Give up that pitiful breath you call life that you so desperately cling onto."
The world went dark with every passing word from Baraggan, and soon a wall of liquid death – the only thing Itachi could feel from it – bubbled up in front of them, preventing them from going further.
Starrk looked at Lilynette who jolted awake with a pale face as she saw the black sludge in front of them and made a decision in that instant.
"Itachi, take Lilynette and protect her. I'll hold back this Hollow long enough for you to escape and hide." He passed Lilynette to Itachi but the girl, who had finally snapped out of her daze due to his words, clung so tightly to him.
"No! I'm not leaving you behind! Ever! You can't force me to leave you, Starrk!" She screamed.
"How quaint."
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