Depth

After reaching what he presumed to be his destination, a structure more closely resembling a coliseum than a palace, Ohta brought out Harribel, startling her a bit as she had been mid-conversation.

"Is this the place...?" asked Ohta.

Nodding in affirmation, Harribel answered, "Indeed. Nnoitra is a savage who revels in conflict and believes that battle is the only thing that gives life meaning."

"Sounds like he's the Kenpachi among the Espada..." noted Ohta, briefly considering leaving the man for Zaraki to deal with. The latter should be arriving as a part of the Attack Squad, so it was certainly an option.

"Does he have any Fraccion...?" asked Ohta, prompting Harribel to nod and explain, "Yes, a man called Tesra Lindocruz. No one knows why, but Nnoitra allows him to tag along and serve him despite his belief the weak should perish to the strong..."

Shrugging his shoulders, Ohta remarked, "I'm sure there's a reason, but it doesn't really matter. I was only asking because I wanted to give the girls a chance to fight."

"We appreciate the consideration, but, as you stated previously, this isn't the time to be playing around," responded the voice of Rukia. "Once this is over, we'll have plenty of time and opportunities to grow stronger."

Though she couldn't see him, Ohta nodded in approval before descending toward the coliseum, leaving Harribel to decide whether she would wait or follow after him. She was the best candidate to rule Hueco Mundo in his stead, so it was important for her to witness him brutalizing those she had marked for death. That way, while she might never truly respect him, she would 'thoroughly' understand the futility of betraying him...

Matching Ohta's expectations, Harribel briefly hesitated before following after him in silence. When they reached the center of the arena, however, nothing happened.

After spreading his senses through the area, Ohta raised his brows and mused, "Looks like no one's home."

"That would appear to be the case..." replied Harribel, using the Arrancar's version of spiritual sense, Pesquisa, to confirm that the coliseum was truly empty. There were presences deep underground, but that was most likely Nnoitra's food supply.

"Hmmmm..."

After a moment of deliberation, Ohta surprised Karin by ejecting her from the cloak's interior, causing her to exclaim, "Whoa! Warn me before you do something like that...!"

Ignoring Karin's remark, Ohta asked, "See this place...?" while gesturing to their surroundings.

"Yeah? What about it...?" asked Karin, crossing her arms and staring at Ohta with slightly furrowed brows. She was the one that had permitted him to do so, but she was still a little miffed that he had obliterated her original body, seemingly without hesitation.

"I want you to destroy it," revealed Ohta. "Go wild, and let me see what you're capable of."

Adopting an almost too-excited smile, Karin exclaimed, "Can I!? You're not just pulling my leg, right!?"

Nodding his head, Ohta explained, "While it's important you learn how to control your power, it's far more vital to know what you're capable of and how to grow further. That goes doubly for me. If I'm going to teach you, I need to know what you can do."

Forgetting her mild frustration, Karin shouted, "Then you better keep your eyes peeled...!" before leaping toward the empty, ruined viewing stands. Most of her movements and attacks were based on instinct, so she didn't know how to fly or form footholds yet. As a result, she just leaped around like a human-sized flea, tearing apart the coliseum and unleashing energy attacks with reckless abandon, laughing all the while...

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Once Karin had thoroughly tuckered herself out, Ohta entrusted her to Orihime before perching himself atop a slanted red pylon more than 1.2km in height.

"What exactly are these things?" asked Ohta, his question directed at the increasingly gold-haired woman observing and following him since he let her out of the cloak's interior.

"They were intended to be the residences of lower-ranking Arrancar and promising Hollows that were not part of an Espada's Fraccion," replied Harribel. "However, due to fools like Nnoitra and Grimmjow, our numbers have increased much slower than they could have..."

"Lucky us," mused Ohta, gesturing for Harribel to sit on the same ledge as him before asking, "So, is that what you'll do once you become the ruler of Hueco Mundo? Gather Hollows with intelligence to form a society? The Soul Society might not be too happy about that."

Catching Ohta a little off guard, Harribel replied, "Then we'll work with the Soul Society to regulate the flow of Hollows into the human world..."

Raising his brows, Ohta questioned, "You'll hunt your kind at the behest of those who have hunted you for eons...?"

Closing her eyes, Harribel replied, "Most Hollows are mindless beasts who only know how to consume and obey their instincts. As we transition from Gillian to Adjuchas and finally Vasto Lorde, we gradually regain our reason and intellect, increasingly resembling the humans we once were..."

Opening her eyes and turning to meet Ohta's gaze, Harribel added, "The nature of Hueco Mundo might never change, but it does not need to be a place devoid of thought, emotion, and reason. All Hollows, regardless of their stage of evolution, ultimately pursue the same thing. We wish to fill the void created when we lost or discarded our humanity..."

Though she likely didn't intend for it to be sensual, Harribel's narrow-eyed gaze and the placement of her Hollow hole, located over her womb, made it seem like she was attempting to entice Ohta as she placed the very tips of her fingers inside of it. Her voluptuous body, dark skin, and increasingly golden hair certainly reinforced the notion...

Tearing his gaze from Harribel's lower abdomen, Ohta asked, "And then what? Say you turn Las Noches into a sanctuary filled to the brim with Hollows seeking to regain their humanity. The simplest way to achieve that is to kill themselves and return to the cycle of reincarnation. What meaning is there in clinging to such a 'hollow' existence if they can never fill the void within?"

"I imagine it's the same reason Souls within the Rukongai persist for hundreds of years after their deaths," replied Harribel. "It's instinct and familiarity, the desire to become 'more' and the fear of parting with the memories and experiences that define each of us..."

Raising her gaze skyward, Harribel added, "Besides...you do not know for certain that it's impossible to fill the void within a Hollow. There must be a reason we become more humanoid as we evolve. At the very least, I've chosen to believe that there is a greater 'purpose' behind the existence of Hollows. We can't exist solely to destroy and consume...not when we have the capacity for so much more..."

*karow* *fwoom* *vwrrrrrrrrrrrr*

As if to spite Harribel's words, an electric-blue light tore through the sky on the far side of Las Noches, followed by a large explosion. The sound hit them about a minute later, so Ohta approximated it to be 90km away.

Before Ohta could ask, Harribel furrowed her brows into an almost pouty expression and groaned, "Grimmjow..." accusingly.

"Isn't that the guy I sent flying a few weeks ago...?" asked Ohta, recalling Grimmjow's pained expression of disbelief as he shattered the man's arm and broke most of the ribs on the left side of his body.

Recalling the incident Ohta was referring to, Harribel responded, "Indeed. And that attack he just used is called a Gran Ray Cero. Lord Aizen strictly prohibited its use within the canopy of Las Noches..."

Getting straight to the point, Ohta asked, "Is he someone that needs to die? It seems he has an issue respecting authority..."

Surprising Ohta, at least a little, Harribel replied, "No. While Grimmjow is similar to Nnoitra in temperament, his pride makes him honorable, and he can also be reasoned with. Nnoitra is the type to resort to underhanded means to get what he desires. Grimmjow won't go out of his way to attack those weaker than him and prefers to fight those he has acknowledged at full strength..."

"Hmmm..."

Alighting from the ledge and floating in the air, Ohta preempted Harribel's question by stating, "If that's the case, I think I know where we can find our missing Espada."

Blinking in realization, Harribel asked, "You think Nnoitra is waiting for an opportunity to ambush your friends...?"

"Didn't you say he attacked the previous Tres Espada...?" asked Ohta. "If he isn't hunting Strawberry's party, he could be seeking to eliminate other Espada to improve or secure his standing. Those who will do anything to stand at the top tend to have a penchant for suppressing those 'beneath' them."

"That certainly sounds like Nnoitra..." admitted Harribel, descending from the ledge to stand beside Ohta with crossed arms. Then, without further discussion, both vanished in the blink of an eye, one with a sharp 'fwish' and the other with a booming 'fwoom.'

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Though he managed to get the upper hand after donning his Hollow mask, Ichigo found himself on the backfoot after Grimmjow released his Resurreccion state, giving him a feline, distinctly predatory appearance. His teeth had become sharp and jagged, his hands and feet had become black-clawed paws, and a slender, whip-like tail protruded from the sleek, bone-white plating covering his body. His pale blue hair had also become much longer, flowing to the backs of his knees and prevented from falling over his face with a forehead protector. More notably, he had blades on the backs of his forearms, and the green markings under his blue eyes had elongated, curving around the sides of his face and flowing into his distinctly cat-like ears.

"What's the matter...!?" screamed Grimmjow, grinning from ear to ear as he bellowed, "I've been waiting for this day ever since you gave me this scar on my chest! At least put up a fight...!"

Punctuating his words, Grimmjow launched himself with tremendous momentum, kicking up a large plume of sand as he did so. Ichigo was able to get his guard up, but the force of Grimmjow's kick sent him crashing through one of the massive red pylons littering Las Noches. In the very next moment, Grimmjow was behind him again, foot raised high in preparation for a powerful heel drop.

"Dammit...!" exclaimed Ichigo, his voice echoing with a ghastly resonance due to his Hollow mask. Unfortunately, while he managed to react quickly, intercepting Grimmjow's heel with the ebony black blade of his Bankai, it barely created sparks as he was sent crashing to the ground, producing a large column of sand and a sizeable crater.

Grinning to the extent it looked like the muscles in his face might tear, Grimmjow exclaimed, "You're so we-" before evading to the side with Sonido as a beam of black, red-hue energy tore through the area he had been standing.

Emerging from the sand column with enough speed to cause the entire thing to disperse, Ichigo's arm and sword appeared to bend and elongate, the energy within causing the surrounding space to distort as he shouted, "Getsuga Tensho...!"

Trusting his instincts, Grimmjow didn't try to block Ichigo's attack as he had done his other blows. Instead, he spammed Sonido, creating a fair distance between himself and the attack as all natural light faded from the world, overtaken by the eerie 'radiance' of Ichigo's Getsuga Tensho seemingly encompassing the sky.

Suppressing the fear that momentarily consumed him, Grimmjow regained his vicious grin and shouted, "Now that's more like it, Shinigami...!" before charging at the visibly exhausted Ichigo with a relentless momentum. The latter's Hollow mask had started to crack, but instead of letting it disperse as it normally would, he quickly swept his hand across his face, forcing it to regain its structure before shouting, "Grimmjowwwww....!" with his eerie intonation...

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(A/N: Harribel's sentiments are as deep as an ocean...also, daily reminder that Not a Mob: Psycho is not a Harem novel.)