Chapter #6 - "We wolves..."

The force of the collision created a huge dent as it lifted the dust into the air. As Kizuna backed up a little with the sonido, he took the opportunity to take another look at the two freaks in front of him.

The hollow, which he described as a Salamander-Head, had a metallic body. Under the moonlight, its torso glistened, highlighting the distinctive hole in its belly. It was large-boned. Kizuna could tell that compared to himself, it only lost in height. Its equal stature with him was frightening.

The bottom half of the Salamander-Head's mask was missing. That's why the dirty grin on its face was so evident. But Kizuna could sense something wrong with it. It was as if something was missing.

He couldn't make sense of it. Maybe it was an absurd hunch. He didn't have the luxury to think about it anyway. Suddenly the panda-like hollow he had described earlier appeared behind him.

"What do you think you're looking at?"

With that question, it tried to bring its claw down towards him, but all it got was nothing!

Kizuna, reappearing in the distance, grinned. As he signaled for them to come, he carefully observed the panda-like hollow. It had a body in shades of gray. It was a little bigger than him. It was possible to see brown spots on its body. There was a hole in its chest.

The mask was broken vertically. Part of its face was visible and the part that was visible looked angry.

"You bastard!"

As they moved angrily towards him, Kizuna could see that they were not experienced enough to be Vasto Lorde. The way they moved, they were like newborns. It was clear that they were eager to show off their power.

From here he thought once again that they might not be a Vasto Lorde but some kind of Arrancar.

It might not be true, but his own limited knowledge told him it was this or something like it. Yes, there were logical inconsistencies, but the reason... He couldn't think of a reason because he didn't have the luxury of thinking!

From the panda came a series of rapid-fire balas. These were too easy for Kizuna to dodge, but his reiatsu was on the verge of running out. At this rate he was going to collapse. What should he do? Should he give up here?

His eyes looked toward the horizon. They had certainly gone far enough. It was clear that they hadn't had a very heroic parting, but...

At that moment the thought of dying flashed through his mind for a moment. Almost at the same moment as this thought appeared in his mind, the Salamander-Head rushed towards him at an inexplicable speed and punched him in the face!

Crack!

He flew away as the punch hurt like crazy, and for a moment everything went black.

[Error! User has lost consciousness! Danger of death detected. Switching to 'Safe Mode'...]

In mid-air, it suddenly somersaulted to a stop and dug its four claws into the ground. Blood oozed from his cracked mask, and his face was emotionless, unspeakably ruthless. Of course, this was not the most important aspect.

***

Kizuna opened his eyes once more in the dark void. He was standing on a white plate. This white plate was thinner and more transparent than before. It threatened to disappear at any moment.

The gazes around him were much more bloodthirsty, much more jealous, much more eager. They were all looking at him. They knew he was here, alone. They knew this was the best chance they were looking for.

They knew this was the best chance to be him.

From the void, from the hollow, dark claws reached out. Some were tentacle-shaped. Some were thick claws with three fingers. Some were razor-sharp limbs. All aimed at Kizuna's silver fur!

Kizuna didn't understand what was happening, but his sense of danger rose. He unconsciously tried to jump to dodge them, but as soon as he did, the white plate disappeared completely from under him!

He was able to dodge the claws and tentacles at first, but the razor-sharp limbs cut a deep gash in his back.

"Ah! Damn..."

With the cut, he began to fall into the void. At first he was falling smoothly, with no end in sight or how far he would fall, but then a six-fingered hand rose from the ground. It was that... The huge black hand with six fingers that entered his dreams grabbed him!

He tried to resist but he couldn't. It was as if everything was against him. It lifted him to his feet and opened its palm as if offering her at the table. Kizuna found himself in its palm, tried to move but found he couldn't.

Tentacles wrapped around his arms and pulled. Three-fingered claws grabbed his legs and pulled. Finally, razor-sharp limbs moved towards his neck.

The pain of it all was unimaginable, but it was accompanied by a fear of death that came from the knowledge that it would all end with that razor blade hitting his neck.

No one wanted to die. Especially not alone. He had things he wanted to do. He was an idiot. He had willingly chosen to fall into a shitty place that he had only heard about from his friends. And not only that, he thought of others when he should have thought of himself.

Did he regret it? No, he didn't, but he didn't want to die for it. Not like this... Not alone... He shouldn't be alone.

At that moment the movement of the razor slowed down as his eyes shone with a silver glint. He didn't want to be alone. What had Harribel said? She talked about being strong together, didn't she? So...

"I'm... I'm an asshole. I stood above you unjustly."

The silver reiatsu coursed through his body as the razor-like limb that had tried to cut his neck faded into the shadows. Kizuna straightened up and continued.

"Yeah, I'm a fucking cheater because I have a system."

He freed one of his arms and it turned into a shadow. He looked into the eyes before freeing another.

"And again, yes, thanks to the system, I will stand above you all."

Kizuna maintained his confident tone as the other arm disappeared into shadow. He straightened up and his reiatsus was more frenzied than ever. It was like a silver totem glowing in the dark.

"But that doesn't mean I'll get stronger on my own."

Kizuna stood up as the claws wrapped around his legs withdrew of their own accord. As the bottom half of his mask began to fall off, he continued.

"I am not normal because of the system. We are not normal. Why don't we use that to our advantage? Together... Let's all become stronger together. Why does one of us have to replace the other? We are not normal."

Kizuna spread his arms wide as the silver reiatsu continued to spread around. The vindictiveness in his eyes began to fade as the silver reiatsu spread all around him. When Kizuna realized he had achieved the desired effect, he continued.

"I am a wolf, a werewolf. Don't you think that's a sign, don't you? I'm calling out to all of you! Those of you who are vindictive, who are jealous, who want to be in my place. You want to be me? You can't be me!"

As he arrogantly proclaimed this truth, his reiatsu continued to shine like a lone wolf. Despite all the darkness, he was making his presence and his position clear!

The fingers of the hand on which he stood wiggled as if threatening to close, but Kizuna did not care.

"You can never be in my place. You can only be with me. Together rather than one person. One consciousness. One soul. Many purposes. We wolves..."

The silver reiatsu continued to spread around violently. The hand on which he was standing became the claw of a wolf as the darkness was illuminated. What should have been a hollow space was filled with silver light. Various faces appeared around him. Each of them wore a mask. Different types of masks could be seen.

But they all looked like wolves in some way. Kizuna closed his dark eyes and allowed the change. His body became even bigger. Another pair of arms grew under his arms and he looked a little more inhuman.

When he opened his eyes again, he had a smile on his face. Everyone's thoughts, everyone's will, were gathered in a single sentence.

"...Hunt together."

***

Kizuna's body, now in Safe Mode, was having a hard time. Wondering how he was still fighting, Salamander-Head and Panda looked at each other.

There were cracks in his mask. He should have perished or died, to put it mildly. But he was standing upright and looking at them with ruthlessness. This made Panda angry and it quickly fired a cero at him!

The cero moved violently into Kizuna's body. All that could be seen was a vast wave of blood-red light that swallowed everything!

But just as it was about to hit him, Kizuna opened his mouth wide and sonic waves erupted from it! The sonic waves formed in front of him like a wall, dispersing Cero's violence around him, and Kizuna suddenly disappeared!

The next instant he was behind Panda and swung his claw! His swift and quick strike stunned Panda...

Ding!

Fortunately, his attack was far from being too powerful after all. As Kizuna's claw bounced back, the Salamander-Head drove its fist into Kizuna's chest!

As soon as it hit Kizuna in the chest, Kizuna was thrown backwards quite a bit. He somersaulted and finally rolled over the sand.

Salamander-Head and Panda were getting really bored with this. They had been told that they were empowered, and when they tested it themselves, they realized that they were really powerful. So... why wasn't this thing dead yet?

It was annoying, and they both preferred to destroy annoying things. But it just wasn't happening!

Furious, they quickly chased after Kizuna. A sure and efficient way to destroy this thing... Together they would take care of it with a Cero.

[User removed from Safe Mode. Memories restored.]

At least that was their plan. But what they saw when they arrived...

It was a huge pack of thousands of wolves.