Finishing Touches

They say time flies whilst you're having fun. Was it a means of justifying spending time doing what you wanted, as opposed to something meaningful? Probably not. Enjoying yourself, regardless of what you were doing, was meaningful. The issue likely arose from the lack of productivity, but then it begs the question: Define being productive.

I'd fallen into this loop two days ago. Two whole days of battling had numbed my brain enough to the point of arguing with myself, and of course, I was enjoying myself the entire time.

"Tsk…" Grimmjow groaned, a swift kick launching him into the air.

Over the past two days, we'd both trained until our skin was falling off. Grimmjow had cast aside his pride while battling me as a means of progressing towards his end goal: Beating Ichigo Kurosaki.

Surprisingly, he was somehow content with me beating him. Our current record was 112-80. While I wasn't necessarily weaker, his experience and willingness to play dirty had bagged him more wins. Naturally, I'd also been holding back.

"Desgarrón" Grimmjow shouted, a flurry of claw-like slashes plunged down from above. The reishi-constructs blasted down around me like canon-fire, the ones that hit me were deflected with my Zanpakutō.

At the beginning of our training, we'd opted to go all out relatively early, but Kisuke had soon intervened. He claimed utilizing our resurrección one at a time would be more efficient than using both simultaneously. I wasn't sure exactly why, but he wasn't wrong. We'd both grown significantly stronger doing so. Not only had my skills with my Zanpakutō increased, the amount of spiritual pressure I could exert had almost doubled, now dwarfing Grimmjow's.

My previous resurrección I'd used against Nelliel paled in comparison to my current state.

As I deflected the final slash, I used Sonido and appeared above Grimmjow, my heel digging into his back as I launched him to the ground. After two days of nonstop battling, the flattened ground me and Nelliel had left after our duel had vanished, now replaced by a crater-ridden field, debris and smoke rising from all areas.

Sonido whisked me back down to the ground moments later, my Zanpakutō clashing with Grimmjow's claws as we locked into another collision.

"I still don't feel like you're trying to kill me, Lance!" Grimmjow smiled sarcastically, the force behind his slashes launching me across the ground. Glancing back up, he raised his elbows up at me.

"Garra de la Pantera!"

Ten sharp, crystal-like pods popped out of his elbows, now whistling through the air as they drove towards me, their path seemingly predetermined like a heat-seeker. With Sonido, I dashed forward, deflecting the first 5 with my Zanpakutō as I weaved through them. The next two were quickly put down by two kicks, the final 3 had veered off course, though. They'd wrapped back around Grimmjow, now hovering behind him like mini-drones.

"I picked this one up from you… Get ready!" He shouted, now dashing towards me, his wavy-hair flowing in the wind as he ran.

"Cero Oscuras: Olvido!"

A chain of blue and black cero suddenly appeared behind him, each charging up similar to the Nelliel's spinning technique. Each beam entered the crystal-like pods he'd used previously, now glowing like miniature suns as they shot through the air.

'Shit!'

Each of the sun-like cero ate through the ground below, their trajectory random. The sandstone ceased to exist as they tore through it like cake. One narrowly missed my chest, whisking past as it shot into the distance, soon followed by an enormous explosion.

Another approached, but this time I was prepared. I raised my leg, my knee pointing into the sky like a spear. I got ready to volley the cero away and redirect it back to Grimmjow, but was quickly put down.

Much like the ground below me, the cero cleaved my leg off in one swift motion as it shot behind me, my leg ceasing to exist as I flopped to the ground. It soon began restoring, signifying my defeat. We'd both agreed upon the loss of a limb as a loss sometime into our training, at around 100 matches.

"Hundred and thirteen, Lance."

"Yeah, yeah… There was no way I'd win overall against you." I replied, taking his hand as he helped me up.

I'd grown to appreciate Grimmjow a lot more over the past two days. At the surface level, he was a hot-headed, short-fused guy, his temperament as brittle as glass. But, if you really dove in and spoke with him, he wasn't all that bad. Granted, you'd need to restrain yourself and make sure you didn't oppose his strength and authority too much, but other than that, we got along.

"Eighty ain't bad, you know. I was goin' easy on you, though."

"Ah, is that right? What about that time I beat you with my eyes closed, though?" I shouted, sweeping him off his feet as I broke into a sprint for the camp.

"Lance, you bastard?!"

The camp wasn't too far from our training area, the distance easily cleared in a couple minutes with our Arrancar bodies.

"Who's running… Ah~ Is that you, Lance?!" A playful voice spoke out, her red-hair popping through the tent-door.

'Shit!' I thought inwardly, my speed not slowing as I approached the tent, Grimmjow hot on my tail.

"Slow down a li—"

I soon tumbled through and into the tent, Riruka's hair tangling around my horns as we flopped onto the ground. She was now laid out across the floor below me as we stopped, her breath brushing against my face. "Ah… Sorry, Riruka."

Sporting a toothy-smile, I tried my best at appealing to the hot-headed girl, but quickly found myself launched back through the tent.

I let out a sigh as I rubbed my head, "I deserved that…"

A thunderous thud soon rumbled behind me. "Your eyes weren't closed, I know they weren't!" Grimmjow shouted, grabbing me by my collar as he raised me off the ground.

"Okay, okay... They definitely were, though." Before I could let out a laugh, Grimmjow karate chopped the back of my head.

As we marched back through into the tent, it was surprisingly quiet. Riruka had somehow found herself sitting on my bed again, whilst Yukio and Kisuke were fiddling around with an empty box, its appearance opaque. There was a mirage-like effect around it, as if it wasn't actually a physical object at all.

Orihime and Sado were still absent, their training nearing its end somewhere else in the Negal Ruins. I hadn't seen much of them, but that was to be expected. They were doing all they could to catch up with Ichigo Kurosaki.

"Lance… You shouldn't jump a lady like that, you know. I might get the wrong idea..." Riruka murmurred hesitantly, her voice trailing off into the distance as she gazed away.

"You should really look at someone when you're speaking to them, Riruka."

"Hah?! But I have poor eyesight!"

"Lance… You've finally finished with Grimmjow," Nelliel said.

She'd been relatively quiet during the past two days, only appearing briefly to participate in our training. She hadn't shown much interest in fighting Grimmjow, though.

"Yeah…" I sighed, noticing Kisuke glancing towards me. I could tell the man was suspicious of me, but just what he wanted to speak about wasn't apparent as of yet.

"Lance… Your bed is surprisingly comfortable… You don't mind if I…If I sleep in it, do you?"

'This girl…'

"I won't be needing it anymore, so go ahead."

Suddenly, Riruka became disinterested with the bed, pushing the pillows to the side as she stormed off.

"Actually… I have somewhere I need to be going soon. I can't hang around here for any longer," I spoke out, Kisuke turning to face me.

"You plan on venturing to the Soul-Society, correct?"

"I do."

"I suspected as much," he said. "For what reason, though? Do you intend to provide support to Kurosaki and the Thirteen Court Guard Squads?"

"You could say that. If cross paths with anyone in need of support, I'll do my best."

"What're you goin' there for, anyway?" Grimmjow asked as she sank into one of the couches.

"Hmm…. Nothing important, really." I lied through my teeth, still sporting a smile.

I was extremely hesitant to explain too much to them. As much as I wanted to, going too deep into my plans could likely have a cascade effect, setting dominoes into motions that hadn't previously. Continuing with this idea alone was already risky, straying far enough off course that it could have serious side-effects to the story I grew up reading. My presence had already changed some of the characters, with Grimmjow and Nelliel developing new techniques after seeing my own.

"So long as you provide support, I see no reason to deny your request. I'll open the Tenkai-Ketchu for you, Lance." Kisuke said, marching out of the tent, Riruka hot on his tail.

"Grimmjow, Nelliel," I said. "I'll see you both soon."

Nelliel remained silent, waving at me as I prepared to leave. Grimmjow punched me in the face, though surprisingly said he'd look forward to meeting me again.

I soon followed Kisuke out, an enormous square-like portal already open in front of me.

"You'll return for me, won't you?" Riruka asked, her eyes downcast as she played with her fingers.

Our relationship hadn't progressed very much in the past two days, but I could tell she'd taken a liking to me. Perhaps because I'd been a little too nice to her… Whether or not it was for personal benefit wasn't important, though.

'Something about this seems a little unethical…'

"Yeah, of course." I said, unsure as to whether or not I really would. Satisfied, Riruka stormed back towards the camp.

"Lance… What is it you wish to speak to Sōsuke Aizen about?" Kisuke asked, having already seen through my plan. Well, some of it, at least...

"A couple things… But, he's not the main reason I plan on going to Muken." I responded, taking a step up towards the portal.

Glancing back, Kisuke had a shocked expression on him, his mouth agape. "How on earth could an Arrancar like you know about that man…"

I didn't respond, simply stepping through the portal as I left Hueco Mundo behind.