The horse Hollow's charge missed. So fast, he thought. The rat Hollow caught sight of Rei and struck with a claw, only to be sent flying himself.
"What?"
The rat Hollow could hardly believe it. He saw that the right claw he had just thrust forward was covered in blood. Rei's slash had been too powerful.
"Super spinning top kill!"
The turtle Hollow pulled his head and limbs into his shell, which was covered in barbs that could hook and kill enemies. The whole shell spun at high speed and came crashing down on Rei from above.
Having just sent the rat Hollow flying, Rei raised his Zanpakuto to block. Sparks flew as the hard shell collided with the blade. With his advantage in size and position, the turtle Hollow finally smashed Rei into the sand.
Boom!
The tremendous impact sent sand and dust flying, crashing outward like a great wave.
"It's not over yet! Cero!"
The horse Hollow wasn't done. The red Cero had been gathering in his mouth for some time, and he fired it straight at his companion, the turtle Hollow, and Rei. With the turtle's shell to protect him, this tactic had worked for them every time.
The sand and dust had yet to settle when they were thrown up again. The bursting Cero and the Gale of Reiatsu even reached the nearby battlefield...
"Captain Nangong!!"
"This is bad! Captain Nangong's being surrounded by three Menos Grande! And he took a direct hit from a Cero..."
"Damn it, kill them all and go help Captain Nangong..."
The team members panicked. Their commander had been hit by a Cero, but they still had enough conscience to go help him.
But Sōjun Kuchiki scolded them. "Shut up and focus on the enemies in front of you. Trust the captain!"
The Expeditionary Force belonged to the First Division, making it a unit under Old Man Yamamoto. Calling Rei captain at present was indeed correct, though someone else could be made captain the next time an Expeditionary Force was assembled.
Sōjun Kuchiki came from a great clan and had seen his share of the world. Rei had been able to release Captain-level Reiatsu to suppress the entire team. With that kind of strength, he couldn't possibly be defeated so easily. He hadn't even shown his Shikai yet!
Sure enough, as if in answer to Sōjun Kuchiki, the turtle Hollow was thrown out of the cloud of sand and dust, his belly ripped open and a large chunk of his mask missing...
"Quick, run... agh!"
The turtle Hollow looked as though he had seen something dreadful and was full of fear. Before he could say anything more, Rei appeared on the shell above his head and thrust his Zanpakuto down with both hands.
The Zanpakuto pierced the shell and stabbed toward the turtle Hollow's tightly withdrawn head, cutting his words short.
"All right, all right! I saw what Adjuchas could do a long time ago, and you lot aren't particularly strong... Time to end the entertainment!"
Rei still hadn't used his Shikai, but he had released all his Reiatsu, and it made the two remaining Adjuchas tremble.
Rei's Reiatsu had now reached twice that of a standard captain. If one and a half times was the level of a mid-tier captain, then twice could be considered upper-mid-tier.
As for the level of a standard captain, Sajin Komamura and Soi Fon of a later era could roughly serve as references...
"Damn it, retreat for now!"
Boss Horse turned and galloped away, while Second Brother Rat was equally practiced, racing off on all fours. They fled in different directions, exceptionally skilled at running away.
Boss Horse had fired a powerful Cero only moments ago. With his previous strength spent and fresh strength yet to come, he couldn't use Sonído for the time being. Rei caught up to him in a single Shunpo.
"Where are you going?"
Rei's eerie voice sounded beside Boss Horse's ear, sending a chill from his horse's backside all the way to his head. He was about to react when Rei slashed him across a leg.
It was a classic slash to a horse's leg. Boss Horse responded with a classic horse face-plant into the sand, followed by a miserable howl.
Realizing something was wrong, Second Brother Rat used Sonído three times in succession on all fours, frantically moving into the distance. There was a stretch of quicksand ahead. If he reached it, he could plunge in and get underground, where the Menos Grande Forest lay!
As Second Brother Rat was about to use Sonído a fourth time, Rei suddenly appeared and swung his Zanpakuto, filled with fierce Sword Aura. A white, half-moon slash flew toward him. It wasn't Getsuga Tenshō, just pure Sword Aura.
"Ten Thousand Rats!"
Sensing danger, Second Brother Rat used his ultimate move, splitting into a huge swarm of little rats that scattered in flight. The bursting Sword Aura killed at least several hundred of them, but that was only a tenth of their number.
The remaining little rats plunged into the quicksand one after another, vanishing beneath the sea of sand.
"His Reiatsu disappeared? Another life-saving skill?"
Rei was deeply displeased that the rat had actually managed to escape. He was more than a little angry.
"That splitting move was his life-saving skill, but the disappearance of his Reiatsu wasn't. Boss, this quicksand is an entrance to the underground, to the 'Menos Grande Forest,' where countless groups of Hollows live. There are Hollows of every rank in there!"
Yanis spoke up at just the right time to explain the stretch of quicksand.
"The Menos Grande Forest? I see. So you get in through quicksand. I thought it was actually a forest or something."
When Rei had looked through Yanis's memories before, he had only examined those concerning his own abilities. Most of the other memories he had seen concerned Las Noches; he hadn't seen any of the Menos Grande Forest.
Knowing his opponent had escaped, Rei gave up the chase. He made a note of the entrance and returned to the battlefield.
After their leaders were defeated and fled, the Ragged Hollows soon scattered as well. The place was left in ruins, and the Soul Reapers of the healing team were busy.
Three more had died. They hadn't been here a full day and had already lost five people. Hueco Mundo truly was terrifying.
Five or six thousand Soul Reapers guarded Soul Society and the World of the Living, and at most two or three hundred died each year. It was rare for five Soul Reapers to die in a single day in an area under guard.
If it happened, a skilled Seated Officer would certainly be sent to investigate. If the Seated Officer died too, a Captain-level or lieutenant-level expert would be dispatched.
In Hueco Mundo, however, such a death rate was all too common. So even a minor healing Soul Reaper could receive a hero's treatment, as long as he dared to make a trip to Hueco Mundo.
"Reporting: three dead, twelve lightly wounded, and four seriously wounded. Approximately one hundred and eighty-two enemies were slain. As for your side..."
Sōjun Kuchiki set aside his noble status and reported to Rei entirely as a subordinate, even addressing him respectfully. Rei's strength had earned his recognition.
Fighting three enemies alone, defeating and killing mid-level Menos Grande—that was strength no lieutenant could possess. Sōjun Kuchiki could easily see the difference.
"I killed two, and one escaped. Leave that aside for now. Set up camp using these four rocky mountains and rest here first! Send out ten people on patrol, and don't let your guard down. The enemy could appear at any time!"
"Yes, sir!"
Someone would record the battle results in a notebook. The urgent task was to take care of the wounded and try to avoid any more losses.
In truth, no matter how many Ragged Hollows the Expeditionary Force killed, Rei's merit wouldn't be very high. Only by killing Menos Grande would he earn substantial merit. But losses among the team would cost him points, so his first priority was to keep his team members from dying.
The four rocky mountains weren't large. The biggest summit was only a little over three thousand square meters, and the tallest mountain was just over two hundred meters high. The Soul Reapers could reach the top in a few jumps.
Halfway up the back of the main peak was a cave with an entrance twenty meters high. Inside were traces of Hollows having lived there. Members of the Kidō Corps gathered Shakkahō in their hands without firing it and used it for light.
By that light, they could see three flat rock outcroppings covered with tarps used on large trucks. These were plainly three thrones.
"Was this where those three Hollows lived?"
"I thought it would be a mess with bones everywhere!"
"Yeah, I didn't expect it to be so tidy!"
"Naturally. Mid-level Menos Grande are already as intelligent as us humans."
"I've heard the Vasto Lorde, the highest Menos Grande, are even humanoid. They're powerful, and they can control their desire to kill too..."
The tidy cave amazed the Soul Reapers who hadn't seen much of the world. Those who knew about Menos Grande took the opportunity to show off, hoping to win the favor of the handful of female Soul Reapers.
The cave could accommodate the whole team, but Rei still sent three groups to guard the other three rocky mountains, eight people to a group. After all, the mountains weren't far apart.
They had been in Hueco Mundo for a full five days. The defensive Kidō and rotating guard system were in place. At present, only ten people went out each day, returning to camp after killing a hundred Hollows.
Rei carried a pocket watch, an exceptionally rare possession at present. It had been made for sale in Soul Society by someone who had come there after dying in the World of the Living, and that person had become a powerful figure in Soul Society as a result.
On the sixth day, they were running low on food. The Expeditionary Force's traditional solution was to eat Hollows, those weak desert animals that needed only to breathe air to survive.
These small animal Hollows weren't formed from fallen human souls, but from fallen animals with lingering resentment.
For example, a human family in the World of the Living tied a husky up on a balcony. Wind and rain battered it that night, and the husky howled for help, but its owners ignored it. The next day, the husky died a miserable death.
With resentment in its heart, the husky's soul could not find salvation or be reincarnated as a husky again. It could only fall and become a Hollow to take revenge on its owners.
Another example was a tiger shot dead by poachers. With resentment in its heart, it too would be unable to find salvation and would fall into a Hollow... There were many other examples left unmentioned.
Leaving aside whether Soul Reapers would send them on, there were only a little over six thousand Soul Reapers in total. They couldn't even send on all the souls of the humans who died in the World of the Living, so where would they find time for animals?
These resentful beast Hollows hadn't been human, so the Soul Reapers didn't feel too much psychological pressure about eating them. Although they were hard to swallow at first, once roasted with Kidō and sprinkled with a little cumin... they smelled quite good.
If its mask wasn't shattered by a Zanpakuto, a Hollow's body would remain intact for some time after death before dissolving into Reishi.
On the seventh day, Rei set out with ten of the more capable fighters on the team. Their target this time was the Menos Grande Forest. Sōjun Kuchiki, whose Reiatsu and strength were both good, was left behind to guard camp, mainly because his body was relatively weak.
Rei had also noticed during this time that although Sōjun Kuchiki had both the desire and the strength to earn merit, his physical condition was poor. Even a small injury had a great effect on him.
Simply put, his health bar wasn't very thick. He wasn't like Kenpachi Zaraki, who had so much health that he wouldn't die even after being slashed dozens of times...
Including Rei, the eleven of them held hands, jumped into the quicksand, and held their breath. They were quickly swallowed up, and by the time they could open their eyes again, there was nothing beneath their feet.
"Careful! Bakudō #4: Hainawa!"
Rei reacted fastest. A Hainawa made of Reishi bound his hand, while the other end wrapped around the branch of a nearby quartz tree.
"You can use it like that?"
"Bakudō #4: Hainawa!"
The team members followed his example. Six managed to land on other branches at different heights. Four unlucky ones weren't good at Kidō, and their spells bound their entire bodies, leaving them to land perfectly on their faces.
"So this is the Menos Grande Forest? But there aren't any Hollows!"
"Are these... the quartz trees on the surface?"
"I see. Those little quartz trees on the surface are their tops, and their branches hold up the desert. What a strange world!"
The Soul Reapers chatted casually and soon worked out the relationship between the Menos Grande Forest and the desert world above.
A large tree down here was estimated to be several hundred meters around, while the smaller ones had only just begun growing and had yet to reach the desert above.
Several large quartz trees happened to be missing beneath the place where Rei and the others had fallen. There was a large pile of sand there, and more sand continued to trickle down from above, stopping only after several minutes.
"It's about seven hundred meters from the ground to the top. Counting the time we spent letting the quicksand swallow us just now, that stretch of quicksand is over a hundred meters thick too. That's really high!"
Rei slowly estimated whether they could return the way they had come. The answer, of course, was no. Even the quicksand, where the sand was thinnest, was over a hundred meters thick. It was thicker elsewhere, and they probably couldn't burrow their way up.
"Captain, look out! It's Cero!"
Suddenly, more than a dozen red lights came from the distance, shooting toward Rei like red laser cannons. They struck only the branch he was standing on, instantly reducing it to powder, while the trunk was caught in the attack and blasted full of large holes.
After dodging with Shunpo, Rei saw that the attack had come from more than a dozen Gillians nearby. The hundred-meter-tall Gillians were easy to make out, but now that Rei had spotted them, they began swaying about at random and stopped attacking.
"An Adjuchas was definitely controlling those Gillians to fire a 'Cero volley.' He fled when the first strike failed."
"I know!"
Yanis gave his assessment, while Rei had already sensed that familiar presence. It was Second Brother Rat, who had fled after losing their fight a few days earlier.
The Ragged Hollows below seemed to be guided by something. They began swarming over in a frenzy, attacking Rei's subordinates without pause. Rei went down to help ease the pressure, killing more than thirty Ragged Hollows in a matter of seconds.
Although the Gillians' movements were no longer coordinated, one of the closer ones seemed drawn by the Reiatsu and slowly approached.
Gillians were social creatures with low intelligence. When one came over, the others followed.
A group of Gillians was like a flock of ducks raised by a rural family. The flock had no leader, and when one entered a pond, the rest would often follow.
When danger appeared, they would also avoid it together. They often quacked nonstop, much like the Gillians' constant shrieking.
As the Gillians approached, the Ragged Hollows made a little room for them and attacked the Soul Reapers from other directions.
One Gillian crouched slightly and reached out a huge hand to grab Rei. Unfortunately for him, Rei shattered his mask with one slash, making him dissolve on the spot...
"Captain Nangong is amazing! He can treat Menos Grande like ordinary grunts without even releasing his Zanpakuto."
"Think about it. He didn't need to release it to kill an Adjuchas, so why would he need to for a Gillian?"
"Right... But now's not the time to talk about that. There are too many of them to kill."
Rei's strength once again filled several of his subordinates with admiration, but with danger all around them, they had no time to flatter him.
"Break through! Everyone, follow me!"
Rei shouted, then swung his blade and cleared out a wide swath of Hollows.