Zommari stood four meters tall, a typical high-ranking adjuchas whose form was already almost human.
But in Rei's eyes, he was only an adjuchas in the end, yet he insisted on making Rei give his name. If Yuanshan hadn't fallen into Zommari's hands, Rei would surely have attacked.
"Arrogant? You're the arrogant one. You say you're the master of this Menos Grande Forest, but how much of it? Don't tell me you rule every Menos Grande Forest there is?"
Rei's tone was full of sarcasm, but Zommari's face was covered by a mask, with no other expression visible. Seeing how dull that was, Rei continued:
"But I don't care about any of that. My name is Nangong Ling, captain of the Soul Society Expeditionary Force. Release him, and we'll withdraw and stay out of your territory. How about it?"
In fact, Zommari found Rei's words arrogant and had long since grown furious. He said bluntly, "I told you not to be so arrogant. You came here alone, yet you still think you can threaten us into releasing him? If that isn't arrogance, what is?"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Using Sonído, three adjuchas appeared before Rei in an instant, swinging their claws or striking with the edges of their hands.
Rei was prepared. He had kept his Zanpakuto in Shikai, and with one swing, he chopped off the claws reaching for him.
The pupils beneath the three adjuchas' masks were filled with disbelief. Zommari could see it clearly too: this was a sheer difference in strength. Nangong Ling was terrifyingly powerful.
"Gillians, Cero Rondo!"
As Rei was about to kill the three adjuchas, Jemirri roared from the side. Dozens of Gillians emerged from behind the surrounding quartz trees, opening their mouths wide to release the Ceros they had already charged.
The Gillians shook their heads wildly, the Ceros from their mouths swinging about like lights in a nightclub. They weren't trying to shoot Rei dead, but to restrict his movements and keep him from approaching.
"Heh heh, your body is mine now..."
Zommari took the opportunity to raise his right hand and unleash the ability he called "love." It was actually an ability to control other people's bodies, similar to Kidō; he had simply given it a strange name.
Rei saw the garlic move and dodged slightly, but unfortunately, he was still hit in the left shoulder. A strange black pattern appeared across the area from his shoulder to his armpit.
All the nerves connected to his left hand passed through there. By controlling that area, Zommari could naturally control the hand as well.
The Gillians' attack didn't stop, and Rei didn't notice anything wrong with his left shoulder until Yanis warned him...
I've lost control of my left arm.
What happened?
That guy did it. It looks like his ability has invaded this area, and that pattern is the medium for his ability!
After the brief exchange of thoughts, Rei unleashed several sword auras, killing five Gillians before landing on a quartz tree. He tore open the clothing over his left shoulder and found that there really was a black pattern there.
Just then, Rei's left hand suddenly shot up and clawed at his eye, only to come to an abrupt halt right in front of it.
Blood Drink had filled its blood gauge with adjuchas blood and increased Rei's Reiatsu twofold. Rei could easily use his Reiatsu to suppress the garlic's ability somewhat.
Even before Shikai, his Reiatsu had been twice that of a standard captain. After Shikai, it rose a little further, and with Blood Drink's blood gauge filled by his enemies' blood, it doubled again. His Reiatsu was now a full four times the standard Captain-level.
"Bakudō #4: Hainawa!"
Rei used Bakudō on his left hand alone, binding it and directing the Hainawa to wrap around his waist.
"Garlic, what's going on? Is this your ability?"
Rei spoke calmly, looking at Zommari, who had dismissed the Gillians and come over using Sonído.
"Impossible. You can suppress my ability... That's right, this is my ability. You can suppress it with Reiatsu for a while, but you definitely can't suppress too much of it or hold it down for too long. And all I need to do is look at you..."
Whoosh!
The eye on Zommari's chest had only just gathered Reiatsu when Rei dodged with Shunpo. Whatever the case, he had lost control of his left hand because Zommari had looked at him earlier.
The missed shot of "love" struck a quartz tree, leaving one of Zommari's eyes temporarily out of use.
As a high-ranking adjuchas, Zommari now had Reiatsu at least at the level of a standard captain, but he was far weaker than Rei in both speed and strength.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Squelch!
After two consecutive Shunpo, Rei slashed at Zommari's head. Unfortunately, Zommari shifted his head slightly at the last possible moment. Rei's blade struck his right shoulder instead, and the wound extended down between his ribs.
As Rei wounded Zommari, one of Zommari's eyes also looked at Rei's heart. A pattern appeared over it, and the sudden heart attack brought Rei's assault to an abrupt halt.
"Die!"
Hum! Boom!
Zommari charged a Cero and blasted Rei head-on. Rei crashed through four giant quartz trees before coming to a stop, and the billowing dust obscured him from view.
Forcing himself to endure the pain, Zommari controlled Rei's heart to stop it beating while extending his right hand and charging another Cero for a follow-up attack.
But a thin red shockwave shot out from the far end of the smoke, dispersing his Cero before slicing clean through half his right hand. The severed surface was as smooth as a sliced pig's trotter.
Rei had once again suppressed the mark with his overwhelming Reiatsu. Zommari was not yet an arrancar, and the strength of his Reiatsu was limited, nowhere near enough to control Rei's body for long.
Rei charged at him even faster. Zommari swore that Rei's smile was the most terrifying he had ever seen, perhaps because he was already terrified to the extreme.
Two adjuchas controlled by Zommari rushed out to intercept Rei. The greatsword swung only five times before severing their heads.
Rei found it somewhat difficult to control his strength enough to preserve their masks.
Boom!
"Huff, huff, huff... Damn Soul Reaper, damn you!"
Rei had all but killed the two low-ranking adjuchas instantly. Zommari used the opening to put distance between them with Sonído, but the two terrifying sword wounds had made even his breathing labored.
"Why are you dodging? It would be so much easier if you trash just let me cut you down. Hmph, now I have to attack again..."
Rei was growing excited. This adjuchas had good Reiatsu and abilities; eating his mask would surely increase his Reiryoku even more.
"Stay back! Don't forget, your companion is still in my hands!"
Rei had been about to use Shunpo to get close and cut Zommari down, but the reminder made him recall that he still had a mission: Yuanshan.
"Stay right there and don't move, or I really will kill him!"
Yuanshan was in the palm of a Giant Hollow, whose mask also bore Zommari's "mark of love." Zommari only had to make the Giant Hollow squeeze a little harder to squeeze the shit out of Yuanshan.
"My lord, wait for me!"
Seeing that Rei really had stopped moving, Zommari turned and left using Sonído. Jemirri saw that things were going badly, abandoned the group of Gillians he had been controlling, and chased after Zommari.
Perhaps Zommari had gone too far away, leaving the Giant Hollow free of his control. It roared and was about to put Yuanshan into its mouth when Rei used Shunpo to reach it and slashed diagonally, cleaving off half its head.
When the Giant Hollow vanished because its mask had been cut, Yuanshan fell from on high. Rei jumped into the air and caught him with his left hand, but just as they landed, Yuanshan's eyes flew open. He drew his Zanpakuto and slashed at Rei's neck.
"Uh... W-why?!"
Rei clutched his neck with his left hand, blood pouring from beneath it. His eyes were full of incomprehension and confusion. Then he slashed at Yuanshan and kicked him away.
After doing all that, Rei went limp like a deflated ball and collapsed to the ground. He twitched a few times and fell still, his left hand still gripping Blood Drink tightly...
"Heh heh heh heh! Finally killed him? Damn bastard!"
A full minute passed, and only after Rei's blood had pooled across the ground did Zommari and Jemirri reappear.
They had never gone far. Instead, they had concealed their Reiatsu and hidden in the shadows, waiting to use Yuanshan to ambush Rei when he approached him. They hadn't expected the single strike to kill Rei.
"Haha, serves him right. A Soul Reaper's greatest weakness really is trusting their companions too much. What a brilliant plan, Lord Zommari."
Jemirri was overjoyed too. The three of them—the horse, the rat, and the turtle—had originally lived a carefree life, but Rei had ruined it all.
"I wanted to control you, but eating you isn't bad either..."
"Who are you going to eat?"
Zommari was still an adjuchas and wanted to continue evolving, but just as he spoke of eating Rei, Rei's nightmarish voice answered him.
Following close behind the voice was a crescent-shaped red slash that struck Zommari's left chest, sending his blood spraying five meters away.
Jemirri's eyes were wide, because a red greatsword was sweeping toward his neck. So frightened was he that he immediately scattered into a swarm of rats and fled.
"W-why?"
This time it was Zommari's turn to ask why. His enormous body didn't fall, because his lower half was like a bulb of garlic and could support him.
But his head was already drooping, and he didn't even have the strength to raise a hand.
"Why? Even a dog would laugh at that. You think Yuanshan could hurt me? The gap in our strength is too great. Even if I stood there without moving, Yuanshan couldn't possibly cut me to death."
"Besides, didn't you see that my Zanpakuto was still in Shikai the whole time? And you still dared to come charging over so recklessly? You were asking for death!"
Rei first mocked the dying Zommari, without forgetting to point out the difference in their strength. Then he raised his left hand and said:
"The blood on my neck came from this guy biting me. And I knew from the start that you hadn't gone far. Your ability to hide your Reiatsu... is inferior to my ability to sense it!"
"Hi, hello. I'm going to eat you in a moment!"
Yanis also spoke up with a mischievous greeting, prompting Zommari to muster all his strength and raise his head. He saw a mouth on Rei's left hand, and that mouth was even talking...
"A p-parasitic Hollow? Damn it..."
Zommari never got the chance to beg for mercy, nor did he live to meet Byakuya in the future. Rei killed him.
Seeing that the high-ranking Zommari was dead, Rei put his mask in his pocket, then slipped his left hand in to let Yanis chew it slowly.
Zommari's mask wasn't the only one in there; there were also the masks of the five adjuchas Rei had just killed.