According to Yanis, his former companion Daruston liked to sacrifice his teammates to seize the chance to kill opponents he considered powerful. It was his usual tactic.
A little trick like that couldn't bring Rei down. He dodged with a single Shunpo, and every Ragged Hollow in the Cero's path was reduced to ash on the spot. The rest fled for their lives.
"So fast!"
Daruston cried out and hardened his arm to block the descending Zanpakuto. He thought he could stop it, but the blade broke his skin, sending blood flying.
"Hah? A mere adjuchas thinks he can catch a blade barehanded? Just like your appearance, you're utterly ridiculous!"
"Damn Soul Reaper!"
Rei's sneer enraged and humiliated Daruston. As a Menos Grande, he had Hierro, so catching a blade barehanded should have been easy. Unfortunately, the blade he had caught was Rei's.
And Daruston did look a little ridiculous. His shoulders rose above his head, and though he was a five-meter-tall giant, his head was only the size of a normal person's. He didn't look very intelligent.
Furious, Daruston instantly extended his claws by more than a meter and repeatedly swiped at Rei. Finding himself too slow, he immediately used Sonído to accelerate his attacks.
Surprisingly, his "random-ass flurry of claw strikes" actually managed to touch Rei's chest, leaving four shallow scratches. With Rei's current level of Reiatsu, enough to fight Kuruyashiki, Daruston could barely even hurt him...
Just as Rei was about to act, Yanis's voice rang out: "Boss, let me eat him. We've hated each other for ages!"
Hearing this, Rei was struck by a mischievous idea. "Why don't you say hello to him, then?"
"Hehe, sure!"
Having become a part of Rei through their symbiosis, Yanis naturally understood what he meant. Sometimes it was nice to see the shock in a prey's eyes.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
"What's wrong? What's wrong? Hahahaha! And you dared look down on me when this is all you've got?"
Daruston attacked madly, believing he had suppressed Rei. Unfortunately for him, Rei had merely been distracted for a moment.
Boom!
With a cold smile, Rei used Sonído to get behind Daruston and sliced off his left arm. As the pain struck, Daruston was still in shock.
Rei wasn't about to give him time. He closed in, pressed his left hand against the edge of Daruston's mask, and wrenched him to the ground before waiting to see what happened. Yanis had already taken the opportunity to bite...
"Argh! Bastard! That wasn't Shunpo just now, it was Sonído! And you even bit my mask! Who the hell are you?"
Daruston descended into hysterical madness. Having his mask bitten by one of his own kind at the same or a higher level meant he would never evolve again.
Crunch! Crunch!
"Hmph, Daruston, have you forgotten who I am already? You should recognize my voice now, shouldn't you?"
"Yanis, you bastard!?"
After the chewing came Yanis's smug voice. Daruston was shocked and furious to hear it, but still said contemptuously, "Did a bug like you take over this Soul Reaper's body? Sneaking up on me is just what I'd expect from a bug!"
"You're the bug, you bastard with a walnut-sized brain! Enough talk. You're dead today!"
Yanis immediately shot back at the insult, then took control of Rei's left hand and fired a Bala. But the motion of raising his hand was too obvious, and Daruston dodged it.
"Stop messing around. They're coming. I'll tear off his mask first!"
After scolding Yanis, who was about to fire a Cero, Rei charged again, leaving Daruston even more bewildered.
This Soul Reaper still has a mind of his own? Yanis didn't replace him? Then why hasn't he killed Yanis instead of keeping a threat on him? This man's definitely a Captain-level Soul Reaper...
With only one arm left, Daruston was completely outmatched. He dodged from side to side in the cramped underground cavern, his thoughts in a muddle, and Rei took off another of his legs.
Once he realized he had absolutely no chance of beating Rei, Daruston split into nine. Six attacked Rei, while three tried to escape.
Unfortunately for him, Rei already knew about this move. After releasing his Shikai, Rei increased his Reiatsu and speed, instantly killing three of them and cutting off their heads, which had shrunk to the size of fists.
He fired the Hadō Byakurai without an incantation, piercing three more, then used a long-distance Shunpo to pursue and kill the three fleeing in different directions...
Ika and Chitetsu brought their people over, but happened to run into the Ragged Hollows fleeing in all directions, delaying them a little.
By the time they reached the cave, a green Cero shot into the sky. It was Daruston's final swan song!
"Yanis, Lord Baraggan will never let you off! No, don't!"
As Daruston roared in terror and rage, a gate appeared, and gusts of chilling wind immediately swept through.
The skeletons on the two doors held one arm across their chests and leaned forward slightly in a bow, as if welcoming him. Then a massive blade appeared, stabbed into Daruston's last split body, and forcibly dragged him into hell!
"The Gates of Hell? It seems this Menos Grande committed terrible sins in his lifetime!"
"It's my first time seeing them. How terrifying!"
When the two lieutenants arrived with several Seated Officers, they saw the Gates of Hell closing, while Rei watched from in front of them.
This wasn't Rei's first time seeing the Gates of Hell. During his travels, he had slain Hollows like this before. It was said that only those who had committed grave sins were dragged into hell.
What he was curious about wasn't the sins others had committed, but what the world beyond those gates was like.
"Lieutenant Nangong, are you all right? Has the enemy been completely eliminated?"
"He's gone through the Gates of Hell. How could he still be alive? You're really smart, Lieutenant Ika..."
After the Gates of Hell closed, Ika stepped forward to ask Rei, and Rei could only praise her intelligence.
"Nangong Ling, you..."
At first, Ika smiled happily at the praise. Only when she saw the way Sister Chitetsu was looking at her like an idiot did she understand. Unfortunately, Rei had already left...
"I only got five masks. What a pity. That was an adjuchas's worth of Reiryoku!"
"No need for regrets, Boss. In Hueco Mundo, even the rare adjuchas number in the thousands upon thousands. Only beings at the Vasto Lorde level are pitifully few."
Rei felt a little regret at collecting only half of the nine masks, but Yanis felt no such thing. He quickly devoured the masks, though they provided little Reiryoku in return...
Yanis had hunted and killed plenty of adjuchas before. His power had grown quickly at first, but later its growth had become very slow. He believed it was due to his own innate talent.
"Earlier, I saw in your memories that Baraggan has two other Vasto Lordes under him. If a group of adjuchas fought a single Vasto Lorde, how many adjuchas do you think it would take to win?"
Rei wanted to use this to estimate a Vasto Lorde's combat strength. He wanted to go to Hueco Mundo again, mainly because Yanis had said there were thousands upon thousands of adjuchas there.
"Vasto Lordes are strong. If you don't use Shikai or Bankai, Boss, I doubt you'd be a match for one... If it were a Vasto Lorde with ordinary abilities, perhaps over a hundred adjuchas working together could win..."
"But if it were Lord Baraggan, then no number of adjuchas would matter. The Respira ability he evolved is too terrifying."
Yanis recalled how terrifying Baraggan was. The ability to decay anything had helped him become the almost universally recognized king of Hueco Mundo...
"Baraggan? Heh, Yanis, remember this: whether we're Soul Reapers or Hollows, the battles between us are contests of Reiatsu. As long as your Reiatsu is strong enough, no ability can hurt you..."
Rei remembered Baraggan. In the original timeline, he had ultimately died to his own ability.
But Rei wasn't afraid. In his years of combat experience, after meeting Zaraki and Kuruyashiki, he had come to firmly believe that Reiatsu was the root of everything.
Powerful Reiatsu could even crush a Ragged Hollow to death, and it could also be used to cover the surface of one's body, preventing an opponent from causing harm...
"Reiatsu is everything? I think I... still don't understand!"
His repeated experiences of the weak defeating the strong had convinced Yanis that fighting dirty and ambushing people was the true path.
"If you don't understand, you don't. You'll get it eventually..."
Only Rei and Yanis's bodies had merged. Their consciousnesses weren't connected yet, nor were their minds. Perhaps that would take a long time to achieve.
Rei also began working out the numbers. Without eating an adjuchas's body, just half its mask could provide as much Reiryoku as the Seated Officer Rei had absorbed before.
Although that Seated Officer had been near death and had little Reiryoku left, the increase was still considerable.
By that calculation, even if only half the Reiryoku was returned to him, his gains would definitely come faster than in Soul Society, because there were so many adjuchas and Giant Hollows.
At present, Hueco Mundo was certainly inferior to Soul Society in terms of its strongest fighters, but Soul Society fell short when it came to forces at this intermediate level.
It was just that Soul Society was relatively united, while Hueco Mundo had no unified power, so large-scale wars rarely broke out between the two sides...
There had been more wars recently because the scale of Baraggan's rule had begun to grow. Several Vasto Lordes had submitted to him, and feeling that his forces were already invincible, he had begun to look beyond Hueco Mundo.
Because Hueco Mundo kept invading Soul Society, the Expeditionary Force had been established decades ago, with the aim of going to the outskirts of Hueco Mundo and killing a set number of enemies...
On the way back to the Seireitei after completing the mission, Rei asked Ika how to get to Hueco Mundo. The answer was to join the Expeditionary Force.
Many noble-born Soul Reapers joined the Expeditionary Force to earn military merit and improve their own strength, using both to compete for the position of family head.
Rei could actually have Yanis open a Garganta and go through, but he was a lieutenant now, after all. If his Reiatsu suddenly vanished, it would certainly cause trouble. Going through official channels would be better.
There was an area in the Seireitei used as a marketplace, with entertainment establishments and shops selling all sorts of clothes, supplies, and food. After failing to find Kuruyashiki at the barracks, Rei headed straight there.
Sure enough, as soon as he arrived, Rei scanned the entire area with his steadily improving ability to sense Reiatsu. He detected a well-concealed Captain-level Reiatsu and used Shunpo to move over...
"Yo, Rei! Finished your mission already? Come on, have a few drinks with me."
Inside the Geisha House, Kuruyashiki had a woman in each arm. Both drinking companions wore heavy makeup and were urging him to drink.
"Oh? I didn't expect you to have this hobby. I won't drink. I wanted to ask you something!"
Rei gave a strange grin. Kuruyashiki was a normal man too, and Rei understood him perfectly.
"Have a drink first. If you don't, I won't tell you..."
Unable to win against the already somewhat drunk Kuruyashiki, Rei let the geishas pour him a few drinks. When they tried to snuggle up to him, he refused.
It was mainly because of all that powder on their faces... scrape it off into a large bowl, and it would surely fill it to the brim. Rei didn't like women who wore such excessive makeup.
"What? You want to join the Expeditionary Force? What for? Hueco Mundo's nothing but desert, with nothing there. Every time the Expeditionary Force sets out, they have to kill that many Hollows before they can come back... Of course, some don't come back..."
Hearing Rei's intentions sobered Kuruyashiki up a little. He paused again toward the end; there were some things he had to make clear to Rei.
"Not come back? Maybe for ordinary people, but me... If I can't get back, I'll go to the central region of Hueco Mundo, capture a Menos Grande, and force him to bring me back."
Rei spoke calmly, but Kuruyashiki saw his confidence.
Kuruyashiki scratched his head, which hadn't been washed in who knew how many years, and said, "True enough! Just grab an adjuchas and make him open a Garganta. If one won't do it, grab two! As long as you don't fall into the Garganta, you can at least get to the World of the Living..."
Rei and Kuruyashiki discussed Hueco Mundo in detail. Rei also told Kuruyashiki that Baraggan was Hueco Mundo's king in name.
After Kuruyashiki pressed him, Rei said he had learned it from the adjuchas. In the end, Kuruyashiki agreed to let Rei go to Hueco Mundo and find out what was going on...
As for the Expeditionary Force, it was generally led by a lieutenant or a Third Seat. Several members of the Kidō Corps used a technique to open a path to Hueco Mundo, but the landing point was random.
Kisuke Urahara's technology didn't exist yet, so travel in both directions was still very primitive, and the destinations were random rather than precisely fixed.
Generally speaking, if an Expeditionary Force failed to return to Soul Society or the World of the Living for more than three years, it was presumed to have been wiped out.
The previous Expeditionary Force had returned long ago, but its losses had been severe, with fewer than half escaping back. It was said they had gone to a place near the center of Hueco Mundo, where Menos Grandes could be found everywhere...
And now, another day had come for the Expeditionary Force to begin recruiting. The goal was to return after killing thirty thousand Hollows. The force was to consist of sixty-five people: five Kidō Corps members and sixty fighters.
At the entrance to the Seireitei's market street, many Soul Reapers who had returned from missions or had no missions at all came and went, yet the street remained spotless.
Young couples, big men meeting for drinks, Seated Officers caught slacking off by their squad members—the entrance alone was already bustling, and it was naturally even livelier farther inside.
The Expeditionary Force's usual recruitment spot was right at the street entrance. Rei had already fallen asleep beside a chair, while two underlings at his side shouted for passing Soul Reapers to hurry up and sign up.
"Could it be they don't believe in Lord Nangong's strength? That can't be right!"
"Bullshit. It's because the last Expeditionary Force ran into Menos Grandes and the death rate was too high. Everyone's at least a little scared!"
The two underlings glanced at the six names recorded in the book and couldn't help feeling a little dejected. It had been a whole day, and they had only recruited six people. In the past, recruitment had always been completed in a day.
In truth, they could only blame the previous Expeditionary Force's bad luck. Getting close to the central region was one thing, but they had also happened to arrive just as Baraggan had lost a favored subordinate. Naturally, he had people deal with them.
If they hadn't fled quickly, perhaps not even half of them would have made it back...