Flight

"Fair, my ass. I didn't accept it because I was grateful you saved me."

Her flustered voice contradicted her feigned annoyance.

Unable to bear the embarrassment, she obediently walked on, quickening her pace.

Cangya rolled his eyes.

She acted a lot like a tsundere, hiding her gratitude beneath a facade of annoyance.

Honestly, he found that kind of personality annoying.

Seeing people be dishonest about their feelings and hide their true emotions behind a stubborn mask could sometimes be incredibly frustrating.

"Do you want to eat it?" he asked. "You can if you want."

A Vasto Lorde Hollow like him didn't need to devour others to evolve, and he hadn't used enough Reiatsu to feel hungry.

Besides, he had no interest in eating a huge chunk of foul-tasting raw meat. The mere thought made him sick.

"From now on, the only way for me to evolve is to become an Arrancar."

To do that, he had to find a way to remove his mask.

He remembered that Apache and her friends hadn't been Vasto Lordes when they met Aizen. They had become Arrancar with the help of the Hogyoku, proving that any Hollow could undergo the transformation.

"How should I do it? Just tear off my mask..."

The thought of tearing off his own mask filled him with instinctive fear, like the fear a mortal felt when facing death's cold embrace.

"Interesting."

No wonder Aizen needed the Hogyoku to blur the boundary between Hollows and Soul Reapers and create Arrancar.

Overcoming that innate fear required extraordinary willpower and conviction—qualities not every Hollow possessed.

Many Hollows would die in the process or succumb to their primal instincts.

"I need more information before I try."

As Cangya fell into thought, Apache stole a glance at the fallen Hollow.

She swallowed hard, hunger gnawing at her after she had expended her Reiatsu.

As an Adjuchas, she needed to devour other Hollows to maintain her individuality and rank. Otherwise, she would regress into a Gillian and never again be able to rise above the rank of Menos Grande.

For many Hollows, such a fate was worse than death.

"I'm not going to thank you just because you offered me food," she declared huffily.

Cangya gently patted her back and smiled. "It's really hard for you to say what you think honestly, isn't it?"

"Ah! I'm plenty honest!"

In the midst of their amusing bickering, Cangya suddenly felt a sharp prickling in his back.

He slowly turned around, narrowing his eyes behind his mask as he scanned the horizon.

A white figure stood atop a distant mountain, indistinct even to his enhanced eyesight.

Though he couldn't see the figure clearly, his knowledge of the world of Bleach helped him recognize the mysterious Hollow.

"Tier Harribel."

Cangya narrowed his eyes, their gaze sharpening like a predator's fixed on its prey.

He racked his brains, trying to recall every detail of Bleach, his thoughts turning sluggishly like rusty gears.

There were some things he couldn't remember clearly, but one image was etched deep in his mind:

A brown-skinned woman with gleaming blond hair, her alluring curves outlined by a tight white outfit, and an air of authority in her composed gaze.

The future Third Espada, Tier Harribel.

"She should be a Vasto Lorde, just like me."

Unlike other Hollows, Tier Harribel retained most of her humanity in this form.

She was willing to sacrifice her life for her Fracción, and her "Aesthetics of Death" was "sacrifice."

"Sexy, powerful, and fiercely loyal to those close to her. That's right, she's exactly my type of woman."

When it came to women, he had never hesitated.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have pursued his teacher instead of getting together with his classmates.

Would his new race stop him from making those bold moves of seduction?

"No."

His new race had instead raised his sights.

Now, he could live free of the constraints of conventional morality.

He didn't mind interfering with the plot, either.

The timeline had already strayed from its original course ever since he came into contact with this tsundere little deer mount.

He wouldn't live in fear of things he couldn't control.

After all, he was a—

"What was it?"

The word for that crucial thing was on the tip of his tongue, but it vanished like a fleeting shadow.

He scratched his head and frowned, trying to retrieve the lost thought, but he couldn't remember it no matter how hard he tried.

While he was puzzled, Tier Harribel disappeared from the mountaintop as well.

"Damn it... System, tell me your functions."

An awkward silence answered his question.

He asked the same question several times, but the system ignored him.

"A system without a consciousness. Did I end up in the wrong kind of world?"

He sighed and turned his attention to Apache.

She was quietly gnawing on the Hollow like a dainty little mouse nibbling on a huge block of cheese.

At her pace, it would take her weeks to finish the enormous beast.

Fortunately, she was full after a few minutes, and her Reiatsu had nearly returned to full.

Cangya gently patted her back, directing her toward where Tier Harribel had disappeared.

"Don't think I'm going to let you ride me forever," Apache complained reluctantly, but she still obeyed his command. "This is so frustrating."

"Listen, little deer. Once you become an Arrancar, you can 'ride' me too."

"Arrancar?" Apache shook her head. "I don't know what an Arrancar is, but fine. Once I become one, I'll ride you."

"Then it's a deal."

His offer seemed harmless on the surface, but Apache felt like a mouse willingly walking into a mousetrap.

The undisguised pleasure in his voice sent a chill down her spine, and she couldn't help wondering what exactly she had just agreed to.

After searching for nearly an hour, he found no trace of Tier Harribel, as though she had retreated to her base after seeing him kill the Adjuchas.

She might have taken him for another bloodthirsty monster.

As a Hollow who loved peace and hated sacrifice, she would deliberately avoid conflict with him.

"Apache? I'm going to practice flying."

It would be a tremendous waste not to use his wings.

He stood on Apache's back and leaped into the air.

As he spread his wings like an eagle preparing to fly, Apache howled behind him.

His feet skimmed the sand before his wings beat powerfully against the air.

A cloud of white sand engulfed Apache.

She coughed a few times, then forcibly dispersed the sand with her Reiatsu.

"Damn it, stay away from me."

Cangya almost fell from the sky at the sudden change, but he deftly flapped his wings and steadied himself.

He felt as though he were learning the delicate art of balance all over again.

With practice, he grew increasingly adept at controlling his wings.

In just an hour, he was soaring through the skies of Hueco Mundo, while Apache watched him enviously.