Longing for Peace

While Ohta was being stalled by Starrk and Lilynette, Rukia and Orihime, tailed by Soifon, made their way to where Ikkaku, Yumichika, and Rangiku were facing off against an Arrancar with effeminate features and six whip-like tentacles protruding from his back. Nearby, Toshiro and Renji teamed up against a large, muscle-bound Arrancar with a bone mask covering his lower jaw while, more surprisingly, Kisuke fended off a child-like opponent with buck teeth who flailed at him like a mindless beast.

"Who should we help first?" asked Orihime, trying to appear calm despite her heart racing and a cold sweat breaking out across her body due to the powerful Reiatsus clashing in the vicinity.

"I'm most worried about Rangiku and the others," replied Rukia. "Captain Toshiro and Renji will be fine teaming up together, and Urahara should be more than capable of taking care of himself."

Drawing her Zanpakuto, prompting Orihime to do the same, Rukia said, "Dance, Sode-no-Shirayuki...!" even though it wasn't strictly necessary for her to call out the name of her Zanpakuto after attaining Bankai.

Following Rukia's example, Orihime shouted, "Cry gently, Kokoroyoi...!" as her Zanpakuto's blade shrank, transitioning into a coil of golden bells with three tiers, functionally identical to a Kagura Suzu, an instrument used by Shrine Maidens during Shinto rituals. The topmost layer had two bells, the second had four, and the third had six, matching the number of petals she had in her hairpins. As for the tsuba(guard) and hilt, the former resembled a six-petalled golden flower in bloom, while the latter was scarlet, affixed with red, gold, white, purple, blue, and black ribbons.

Swinging her instrument-like Zanpakuto toward Rukia, Orihime shouted, "Suzu-no-Kyoshin...!" causing the bells of Kokoroyoi to issue a pleasant-sounding chime. At the same time, a faint golden light enveloped Rukia's body, resonating with and directly amplifying her Reiatsu as she wielded her pure white Zanpakuto, stabbing it into the ground four times before lowering herself into a thrusting posture, taking aim at the Arrancar with six tentacles more than two hundred meters away as she coldly muttered, "Tsugi-no-mai, Hakuren(Next Dance, White Ripple)..."

As the temperature around her dropped rapidly, Rukia thrust forward with her Zanpakuto, unleashing an avalanche-like wave of energy that formed into a destructive vortex as it surged toward the effeminate Arrancar from his blind spot. The raven-haired Demihollow was caught off guard by the attack but managed to retract all six of his tentacles to block it, scowling as he hissed, "Underhanded wench...how dare you sneak attack the great Luppi!?"

Shattering the ice that had formed around his tentacles, Luppi intended to direct them at Rukia and Orihime like a rain of spears, but turning his back to Rangiku would prove to be a fatal mistake. A frigid numbness suffused his body after Rukia's attack, so he barely felt the gentle breeze heralding Rangiku's before a sense of existential dread washed over him.

"Gin senp-"

Before Luppi could finish his utterance, his body was abruptly bifurcated at the waist, his upper half consequently disintegrating while his legs fell to the ground with a sickening crunch. It was a relatively gruesome sight, causing Orihime's stomach to churn, but she managed to avoid throwing up as she and Rukia joined hands with Rangiku, Ikkaku, and Yumichika to provide support to Toshiro and Renji...

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Sensing the death of one of his comrades, Starrk's brows furrowed ever so slightly. Fortunately, the one that perished was the one they intended to use as a sacrificial pawn if things went south. Starrk only really cared about the Espada ranked two through five, so the death of Luffy, Luppon, or whatever he was called, was summarily dismissed in his mind.

Catching the gunslinging Arrancar slightly off guard, Ohta asked, "What's your and the other Arrancars' aim? You said that if it were up to you, you wouldn't be here. Is Aizen controlling you...?"

Scratching his head with his right pistol, Starrk deliberated momentarily before replying, "Those of us ranked three and above are immune to the effects of his Zanpakuto. At least, that's what he told us. As for why we're helping him..."

Interrupting Starrk's explanation, the pistol in his hand screamed, "Stop fraternizing with the enemy, Starrk! You know this bastard is going to run rampant in our home after this, right!? Is your head hollow or-"

Sheathing the pistols in their holsters, Starrk continued, revealing, "Aizen promised Lilynette and me an end to our loneliness and gave us comrades to protect. Once he claims the throne of the Soul King, Barragan, Harribel, and the two of us will become his Royal Guard, building a peaceful society outside the influence of the three realms..."

"Is that supposed to be some kind of joke...?" asked Ohta, brows raised in disbelief. "Aizen intends to supplant the Soul King and destroy the current balance. Billions will die for the 'peace' you're referring to..."

"But those who survive, the truly strong, will build a far stabler world atop the previous one's destruction," contended Starrk. "As someone born with tremendous power, you must have felt it, right? The pain and loneliness of being different from nearly everyone else. Having to continuously restrain your power so that you don't inadvertently crush the lives of those around you like ants..."

Casting his gaze at the moon overhead, Starrk softly but firmly asserted, "If you haven't yet, you will..."

With Ohta unleashing a far larger crescent of energy, Starrk unholstered his right pistol and fired a massive column of azure blue energy, piercing the former's attack and forcing him to evade.

Contrasting his threat from earlier, Starrk didn't immediately begin firing upon the town of Karakura. Instead, he used Sonido to keep a distance from Ohta, kiting him with weaker projectiles and periodically evading his opponent's destructive attacks while drawing the exchange closer to the ground.

"You fucking pansy ass mother-fucker...!" screamed Ohta, seriously considering going full postal without regard for his surroundings. The moment he crossed that line, however, he would be no better than the monsters that incited the war in his previous life, resorting to the use of nukes the moment they realized they had invited a global ass-whopping onto themselves...

In response to Ohta's shout, Starrk surprised him by appearing right in front of him, pistol leveled at his face and angled toward the sky as he pulled the trigger. The attack knocked Ohta's hood off, incinerating it in the process, but when the blue light faded, the jackal-eared youth was largely unscathed, the same blue light from Starrk's attack rising from his throat like a haze as he said, "You'll need to do better than that..."

Raising his brows, Starrk questioned, "Did you...eat my attack...?" before dodging as Ohta opened his mouth to unleash a similarly blue projectile. His body was tough enough to withstand the flames of the Sokyoku, and his ability to absorb and repurpose energy was frightening to the point that Yoruichi had warned him against exhibiting it in front of others lest he truly be labeled a monster. More importantly, with the majority of Starrk's attacks being energy projectiles, Ohta was, very nearly, the man's natural enemy.

Before Ohta could try and take a bite out of Starrk directly, a pillar of light abruptly descended from a crack in the sky, enveloping the gunslinging Arrancar in a nearly indestructible barrier. If an ordinary Shinigami were to strike it, not only would they be unable to affect it, but the energy within the light would rebound, seriously injuring or killing them. Ohta was aware of this, but instead of simply gnashing his teeth and allowing Starrk to get away scot-free, he Shunpo'd forward and landed a meteoric blow against the thin energy membrane, cracking it like bulletproof glass but ultimately failing to break through as blood erupted from his arm...

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Discovering Ohta lying in the middle of the road, staring listlessly at the sky with his right arm mangled, Orihime screamed, "Ohta-kun...!" before rushing over to heal him. Rukia and several others ran over to him as well, many wearing expressions of disbelief as they couldn't believe that he, of all people, had 'lost.'

Creating an unnerving disparity, especially with the condition of his arm, Ohta rose to a seated position, his expression a neutral mask of calm as he said, "Don't look at me like that. This injury is the result of punching the Negación. Now, tell me, what happened on your guys' end?"

Instead of answering Ohta's question, Toshiro stared at him with even greater disbelief, asking, "You punched the Negación? With your bare fist? Do you have a death wish...?"

"Yeah," replied Ohta. "More specifically, I wish that coyote bastard and his stupid talking pistols would choke on Aizen's dick..."

Interpreting the malice in Ohta's words to indicate he would be fine, Rukia exhaled a sigh of relief, placing her hand on his forearm as she said, "We'll get them next time..."

"Preferably on their home turf..." muttered Ohta, his expression and tone huffy. The fact this raid had occurred two days before their assault on Hueco Mundo concerned him, but it wouldn't matter once they received the order to attack. At that time, even if Aizen and his hypnotized holes escaped to the Human World, Ohta could unleash his full power without restraint...

Thinking of the final battle against Aizen, Ohta gave up on receiving an answer to his previous question and asked, "Where's the strawberry...?"

Shaking his head, Toshiro replied, "We don't know. We had our hands full with our opponents, but he should be okay if he were with those Visored. If they were defeated by a single Arrancar, they wouldn't be very useful in the fight against Aizen..."

"You're not wrong..." muttered Ohta, flexing his right hand since Orihime had just finished repairing it. He then used said hand to caress her head, replacing the concerned look on her face with a smile as he adopted one of his own...

Interrupting the moment, Ichigo landed like a meteor next to the group, not controlling his descent in the slightest. As a result, a large crater was formed in the middle of the street as he shouted, "Ohta, everyone, it's an emergency! We need to go to Hueco Mundo right now...!"

Before anyone could advise him to calm down or ask what the fuss was about, Ichigo, looking particularly desperate, barreled through them in an attempt to grab Ohta's collar, shouting, "It's Karin! She's been kidnapped! I need you to help me rescue her...!"

Though he initially shoved Ichigo away, Ohta's irritated expression turned to confusion as he asked, "Seriously...?"

"Does it look like I'm fooling around...!?" screamed Ichigo, the sclera of his eyes gradually turning black as Renji and Ikkaku struggled to restrain him.

Stepping between Ohta and Ichigo, Rukia shouted, "Calm down, Ichigo! We'll help you get your sister back! Just explain to us what happened...!"

Though he stopped trying to free himself from Renji's and Ikkaku's holds, Ichigo appeared no less panicked as he shouted, "Some asshole calling himself the Cuatro Espada attacked my house and took her hostage! He said that if I wanted to save her, I needed to come to a place called Los Noches and that I needed to bring Ohta with me. Now, let's go! We don't have time to waste...!"

Contrasting Ichigo's and nearly everyone else's expectations, Ohta rose to his feet, dusting himself off as he replied, "Sounds like fun. Let's go." in an almost casual tone. He was more than a little dissatisfied with how his fight with Starrk ended, so although this was clearly a trap to isolate him and Ichigo before the final battle, Ohta didn't care. The caveat was that if the enemy attempted to leverage Karin's life against them to compel their surrender, Ichigo would be losing a sister...

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(A/N: RIP Luffy. Also, here's your daily reminder that Not a Mob: Psycho is NOT a harem novel...)