18 Chapter 17

Waking up after the "incident", the "minus" looked around. He, as usual, was surrounded by buildings familiar from the inner world, but they could not be compared with those skyscrapers, with those skyscrapers, with those giant incarnations of the childhood dreams of his King ... his matured owner. Hichigo almost immediately realized that he was not in the inner world of Kurosaki, but somewhere else. Not in the Community of Souls, much less in Ueko Mundo, but in a completely different world, somewhat reminiscent of both the World of people and the World of the Gods of death, but more modern than the one that he remembered, and much more lively and animated than lifeless desert of the World of the Empty.

Finding himself thrown out in some nooks and crannies, the garbage of society wandering around here and there, with only rags out of their clothes, Hichigo immediately suspected something unusual. This mystery was in freedom, in a feeling that was alien to the spirit of the blade, which he was. Serve your master with partial faith and truth, help him overcome difficulties in life and make him stronger ... become stronger with him. That was the meaning of his existence up to this point.

For the first time, he did not need to think about the explosive temperament of his master. Because of this, inside the chest it became unusually empty. Now he is only a lost Zanpacto-Empty. Now he was trying to understand only the reason why he is free, and not located inside the soul of a red-haired man.

"And what should I do, eh, old man?" - Scrubbing his chest with black nails, pulling the oak fabric into a pale fist, he asked the void, turning to the second part of Ichigo's soul. - Silence, huh? - Poisonous yellow pupils sparkled in bright light; he never heard the answer, only the rustle of paper on the ground and the faint breeze caressing pale skin.

Hiding his eyes from the blinding rays of the lanterns, Hichigo tensed, sensing the presence of a dozen people. Removing his hand from his face, he immediately felt a burning pain in the neck, as if that bitch, Soi Fong, had again decided to try out her signature technique - killing with two blows. Having passed his hand several times in that place, the spirit of the blade pulled out a short, like a sting of a bee, and an incredibly thin needle.

- We found another "volunteer"! - Shouted one of the attackers, dressed in a military uniform, gesturing for the rest of the group.

Breathing heavily, Hichigo leaned to the left, resting his hand on an iron, empty barrel. The last thing he saw was how several trunks were aimed exactly at his head.

- Well. These should be enough. - Enough said the main one. An old man of about sixty, leaning on an expensive cane adorned with precious stones, smiled into all his fifteen golden teeth. - Take the rest and take them to the cells! I feel soon there will be an amazing performance in the arena. The old man smiled rather, watching his victim fall unconscious into a pile of junk.

***

Concrete, thick and cold walls ... the dim light of a lone bulb on the ceiling ... a pair of wooden beds and a dirty toilet. And also thick bars. Where without them? Hichigo could only marvel at the lightning fast change of scenery. He was more and more absorbed by the feeling that he would soon vomit, but he did not care so much that he had already measured this idea, having gathered just to wait for that old man, and then kill him. Yes, with particular cruelty.

The empty tiredly led his head from side to side, flexing his stiff neck. His gaze, wandering from one wall to another, and then to the outhouse and to the guard standing in the dark, poorly illuminated corridor, gradually began to clear up. He still did not understand why it could exist on its own, without a partner.

- Her! Where am I? - The spirit of the blade was decided to get up, but the chains, fastened with wide "bracelets" on the wrists, did not allow him to do this. "Better answer ..." he threatened, staring viciously at the man behind bars.

- You better keep quiet, garbage! - The guard, dressed in an ordinary, gray robe and boots, hit the rods with his 10mm pistol, loaded with bullets from a tire. "Well, my gun can accidentally fire." - Bass said an unshaven man, squinting brown eyes. "You need the boss alive to entertain the public in the arena."

Hichigo, in surprise, arched an eyebrow, grinning predatoryly and starting from hopelessness, pounding the back of the head against the wall. What was happening more and more struck him with its speed, like a whirlpool, pulling him to the bottom of some bottom of the damned ocean. Just recently, he only regained consciousness in an unknown place, and after ten minutes or a little more, he was euthanized with a tranquilizer, and then put into the cell and chained. It seemed crazy to him madly, because he could at any moment level this place with the earth, killing everyone.

"Where's your boss, huh?" - Prisoner asked cunningly, poisoning his eyes, smiling faintly at bloodthirsty thoughts. If he manages to get out, he will do everything to finish off the perpetrator of this "misunderstanding." And it seems that the wait did not remain long, if, of course, one believes the foreboding and the feeling that someone is sneaking through the ventilation.

"You don't have to know that." - Carelessly threw the guard, jerking his broad shoulders and crunching his neck, as if he wanted to seem a little more formidable than just a bag of meat, blood and bones, which he saw "minus".

- Ho-oh-oh. Well, okay. - He held out the spirit of the blade, falling to one side. - It didn't hurt, I wanted to know. - He decided not to argue, anyway he was already informed that he would entertain the so-called boss. Concentrating, he realized that the air in this place, like in any other, is saturated with a huge amount of energy similar to spiritual particles, so this should not greatly affect his usual attacks.

Soon Pustoy covered his eyes tiredly, it seemed for a moment, but when he opened them again, the guard disappeared somewhere, and people dressed in rags kept running down the corridor. Looks like he dozed off, collecting his thoughts.

"If you want to live ..." an unknown man said sharply and loudly, whose face was hidden under a bone mask that somehow reminded Hichigo of the mask of the Empty. - Come out!

Sitting comfortably, the captive stared at the keys thrown at his feet.

- The escape? - He asked, but the person who released him was already far from here. - Well, okay. No one answers the poor me. - Mumbled a minus. - It will be necessary to punish them. - His lips spread out in a predatory smirk, as soon as he got rid of nasty fetters that unpleasantly clasped his wrists.

Leaving the camera, Hichigo looked around, meeting with an old acquaintance.

- Don `t move! - Pointing his gun at a recent prisoner, the guard cried out, making a warning shot, leaving a shallow scratch on the cheekbone of the "minus".

Licking blood off the cheek with the tip of his purple tongue, Hichigo squinted unkindly, slowly raising his left hand.

"I can shoot too." - The released captive smiled, pointing his index finger towards the guard of his cell. - Groin ...

The guard, frowning, only managed to pull the trigger of his gun. A bullet that flew out of the barrel instantly melted in a scarlet flash a tire, formed from a ball the size of a pea. An attack from a chinos blew the guard's head and hands, which had recently still squeezed a pistol, also split into tiny particles.

- "An unusual feeling. - Turning in the opposite direction from the fallen body of the guard, who was pouring the dirty, dusty floor of his corridor, thought" minus. "The feeling from Sero became some other, unknown to him." Material body? " - He understood, pinching himself on the left hand. - How interesting. - Putting his hands behind his head, he went forward, where his liberator ran away, soon going outside.

Looking around, Hichigo grunted, casting a glance behind himself. He was kept on the ground floor of a huge, crumbling, three-story building.

- Blithely. - Looking at the building, he sighed, noting its precariousness.

- I think so too.

Hichigo turned on his voice, immediately meeting with dozens of familiar trunks aimed at him and a couple more people who managed to escape from captivity.

"I'll ask you all to come back." Said the old man, whose voice was familiar to the Empty. He was behind the soldiers, who were for convenience displayed a row, like a human shield. His bushy eyebrows cast silver in the sunlight, amusingly combined with the golden gleam of his teeth.

The spirit of the blade grunted, instantly facing the old commander. It was this geek who was guilty of his imprisonment here.

- What ?! - Someone from the military cried out, not understanding where the person whom they kept on the fly could have disappeared. They could not lose sight of him.

Armed people dressed in the uniform of soldiers did not even have time to react, as their commander was already standing with a broken chest.

"You're not strong at all." - Disappointed he sighed the minus, slowly lowering his left hand and watching the old man's lifeless body slowly slide down, pleasantly tickling Hichigo's cold skin with broken bones and warming it with still fresh blood, thick drops falling on the hard asphalt surrounding the abandoned building located somewhere on the outskirts of the Floor. - It's boring. - Hichigo glanced at the people of the old man killed by him, who is some important and influential bump, since such a detachment guards him.

The "Minus" tilted its head to the side with incomprehension when it did not hear the expected shots, and stared at the soldiers, who were talking quietly among themselves. Soon one of these guys approached him.

"I would like to know what you intend to do next?" - Having swallowed, the approached soldier nevertheless decided to ask this question.

- I.e? - I did not understand the minus. "What do I want to do with you?" - A little out of control, he repeated, I do not understand the situation.

"We are slaves whose names were bought at auction by this man." - A man in uniform squinted at the corpse of an old man. "Our names belonged to him, like our lives." Now he is dead, and you are his killer. So now we serve you. - Briefly, he explained in excerpts. It seems that this man was shocked by what was happening no less than Hichigo himself.

The spirit of the blade scratched his head in confusion, watching dozens of prying eyes staring at him.

"Do you belong to me now?" - He decided to clarify, stretching his lips in a grin.

- Yes sir. - Reluctantly said the daredevil, who decided to speak with the escaped ex-captive. "Without our names, we are nobody, even worse than cattle." All that we had was the work of our Mr. whom you killed, which means that now our names belong to you. This is the contract that we were all forced to sign.

- How interesting. - "Minus" scratched his chin, looking thoughtfully at the corpse of an old man lying in a pool of blood near his feet. "Does this mean that I now own everything that he does?" Hichigo nodded to the corpse.

"If you want it, you can just take everything that our previous master owned." I can assume that you will be able to do it. Considering that we are now on your side, this will not be a problem.

- Here is how? Well, I like it. - The minus grinned, anticipating entertainment. He always wanted to command an army ... albeit a small one. - Lead on.