34

With each battle that occurred, more and more shinigami died and dyed the sands of Hueco Mundo red with their blood. The fallen hollows also did not help with keeping the sand white either.

But it was not just death. The shinigami of the survivors were improving at a fast pace. Of the remaining 400 shinigami, 5 had learned the name of their shinigami during the expedition including Shin. This meant that 5 shinigami capable of earning the rank of an officer were created in the span of 5 months unlike in Seireitei where a new officer would come around once every 5-10 years.

Kyou and Shin had the largest improvements out of anyone. Kyou who was comparable to someone of the 5th rank in strength before had reached a level where she could battle with a lieutenant with the confidence that it would be an even battle.

Her zanpakuto was called the Seiken. The original form of the shikai was a western longsword. But after getting to know her spirit better and training her reiatsu, Kyou unlocked an ability called 'Ludwig' which summoned a sharpened sheath that covered the sword and turned it into a greatsword. This meant that Kyou could rapidly switch between light and swift attacks to heavier blows when her enemies were not expecting it.

Shin's zanpakuto was qilin, the same as Kojuro. It seemed that Shin would have been killed by Kojuro in the future since two people were unable to have the same zanpakuto according to the laws of Soul Society. Even though they had the same zanpakuto, Shin was only able to use 'Thunder Sphere' and had come nowhere close to the mastery that Kojuro had with the weapon.

The Arrancar had also improved in their abilities during the entire time they were in the base. Whether they discussed it beforehand or it just turned out the way it did, each of the Tres Bestias specialized in different combat techniques.

Cyan had the fastest sonido of the trio. She moved so fast that the other two could barely react when she had attacked them.

Franceska's specialty was not her sonido but her hierro. With her defense, neither of the other pair could cut through her skin or even injure her with their zanpakutos.

Lastly was Emilou. Her specialty was neither sonido nor hierro but it was her cero. Emilou could charge her cero faster than the other two and it was also nearly twice as strong as their ceros.

With each of their specialties, it was impossible for Kyou and Shin to beat the trio even when they worked together. And this was without the resurrecion of the Arrancar.

As for Tier, she had shown the biggest improvement. Using Tessai as her personal sparring partner, Tier was had improved by leaps and bounds.

Everything was going fine and steady until Tier had sensed several presences in the distance during one of the days she was meditating. Her pesquisa had developed over the past few months. She hurried to inform Ren.

"Ren. There are 6 individuals approaching Shin's group. They are moving as fast as shinigami but they are giving off a different feeling than Arrancar, hollows, or shinigami. It also seems like they had appeared out of nowhere since they had appeared closer to use but started moving outward toward Shin's forces. "

Ren sat up after thinking over who it could be but he had no idea. But since it was something that even Tier was unsure about, he knew it could not be anything good.

'And they are approaching Shin's group. Most would get scared away when they see a group that size and there are only 6 of them. That means that they are confident enough in their strength to take them down.'

"Get the trio. With the 5 of us going to meet them and Shin already there, we have 6 officers ready for combat. We will be doing this with Straw Hat Rules."

"Straw Hat Rules?" Tier asked looking puzzled.

"It means that we match ranks. Our strongest takes on their strongest, second strongest takes on second strongest, etc. No one interferes in someone else's battle unless they ask for help or need it."

Tier nodded and went to go get the trio. When all 4 arrived back at the tent, Ren was ready to leave. The group began to flash step together towards the west where Shin's shinigami were. It took their group a few minutes to catch up and by the time they had arrived, the unidentified group had already caught up with Shin's.

Shin stood at the front with his zanpakuto already in its release state and pointing it at the 6 men. Ren was curious about who they were but when he saw that one summoned a bow made out of energy and pointed it towards his group, he knew exactly who he was dealing with.

'Quincies.'

"May I ask why you all are following my men and where you have appeared from? Oh. Your names as well would be nice."

The man who seemed to be the leader stepped forward and gave a small bow to greet Ren.

"I am the leader of this small party. We were chasing a criminal and he came through one of those black portals.

We thought that maybe he joined this group but since we can tell they are shinigami, I am sure that he is not with you. We will just be on our way."

Ren made no indication that he or his officers would stand aside.

"Name?"

The other quincies looked angry that they were being looked down upon and wanted to fight back but with their leader signaling for them to not do anything stupid, the men just stood down.

"My name is Anja Ishida."

'Ah. That's why he looks so familiar. He must be an ancestor of the Quincy kid. That's all I cared about. Ishida was only dangerous to weak hollows and Mayuri who did not excel at combat and he was supposed to be a prodigy.

I don't get why the higher-ups think of these guys as big threats.'

"Fine. You can go. Please try to be more careful. Not all shinigami will allow quincies to walk away so easily. Or at all.

Oh. I am Ren by the way. Captain of the 8th division."

Anja nodded before he led his men in another direction.