Muten Natsu stabbed Myōki into the palm of his left hand with a reverse grip. Jet-black ink flowed across the stark-white arm armor.
The force that had erupted when Ink Fortress's defense collided with Nnoitra's attack had been absorbed by the strange arm armor from Hell. Now, all of it poured into Myōki, sparing Muten Natsu the need to gather power.
Unlike an ordinary Ink Fortress Flash, each ink mark held twice the power accumulated by Ink Fortress.
And there were three of those ink marks.
Three ink marks circled Muten Natsu's forearm. As Muten Natsu pulled Myōki out, they rippled outward layer by layer. The blade tearing free from his body ripped open a deep pitch-black void and completely erased the Hell-class Vasto Lorde Cero Flash coming straight at him.
Nnoitra's body was erased along with it.
From his right waist to his left shoulder, a palm-wide strip of flesh and bone tore away from his body, crushed to powder by that terrifying force and scattered behind him.
It looked as if a mantis had spread transparent crimson wings.
Nell watched Nnoitra fall with those wings spread, and a hazy memory surfaced in her mind.
It had been yet another dull duel that ended with Nell's victory and Nnoitra's survival.
["I already told you, I don't want to... get into any conflict with you. I can't see any purpose in your fighting."]
["Of course there's a purpose,"] Nnoitra answered. ["The fight itself is the purpose."]
["I don't understand."] Nell could not understand what Nnoitra was thinking. ["Why... are you so obsessed with fighting?"]
["Because I want to die."] Nnoitra tightened his grip on his weapon. ["I want to die in battle. That's why I became stronger. The stronger you are, the more battles come looking for you. That way, I can breathe while fighting all the time."]
["That's..."] Nell murmured. ["Intoxication, isn't it?"]
["That's right. In battle, even the finest wine can't compare to water."] Nnoitra reached into the white sand beneath his feet. ["People like us were never going to be saved from the start. Whether Aizen exists or not, that fact doesn't change. If there's anything I can thank him for, it's that he gave me power."]
["That's why I can..."] Nnoitra grabbed a handful of white sand and clenched it tight. ["Taste battle on an even higher level. I have to be stronger than anyone. In order to fight the strongest, no one but me can be stronger than me. No matter what it takes, I'll get rid of them."]
No matter how hard he clenched his fist, he could not keep the white sand from slipping through his fingers.
So he opened his hand and watched the sand drift away in the wind.
["I want to be cut down..."] Nnoitra looked up at the crescent moon. ["And die before I hit the ground. That's the death I want most."]
The bright crescent moon reflected in Nnoitra's dull single eye.
From the very beginning, Nnoitra had known he was a worm.
A worm crawling back and forth beneath malice that would never fade.
No matter how much he struggled, he could not change that fact.
As a worm, he could not change the way he lived. He could only choose the way he died.
Kill his own kind and build a mountain of corpses.
Climb to the moon and die there.
That wish did not come from any beautiful longing for the moon, but from a meaningless struggle born of despair.
And because it was meaningless, he had to seek battle that let him forget himself, focus only on slaughter, and pile up the mountain of corpses beneath his feet.
Do not stop. Do not think rationally.
Climb upward.
Until death.
Then Nelliel appeared.
She was a worm just like him, yet she beat her wings and effortlessly reached the place Nnoitra had fought so desperately to climb to.
She even told him that as long as he spread his wings and acted rationally, he could do the same.
But when Nnoitra tried to spread his wings, he realized they had long since been destroyed in his battles against the other worms.
True despair was not being unable to see hope.
It was seeing a hope that had once existed, only to realize he had destroyed it with his own hands and could never get it back.
The crescent moon in his eye grew more and more blurred, until he could no longer judge the distance.
Ah... Nnoitra remembered now.
He had only one eye.
It was hard to judge distance accurately with only one eye.
The distance between himself and the moon.
And the distance between himself and her.
It was not that far... and not that close.
The 5th Espada, Nnoitra Gilga, was dead.
As he had expected, he received no salvation, not even at the end.
But contrary to what he believed, he had once had a chance to be saved, right at the very beginning.
Boom!
Violent Reiatsu roared outside. The battles between Kenpachi Zaraki and Ulquiorra, and between Byakuya Kuchiki and Yammy, were still raging.
"Beasts always make such a racket when they fight." Mayuri Kurotsuchi kicked Szayelaporro, who still showed no response, then turned to Muten Natsu. "Are you staying here to watch, or are you going to the World of the Living, ne?"
Muten Natsu thought of Zommari leaving moments ago. "The Hōgyoku... Is there any way to return to the World of the Living now?"
His gaze shifted to Dondochakka and Pesche. If those two opened a Garganta...
"With their strength, the Garganta they open would never be able to carry such powerful Reiatsu through." Mayuri Kurotsuchi had clearly noticed what Muten Natsu was thinking. "But the Garganta I open can."
"Ah!" Ichigo Kurosaki's eyes lit up. "Like Urahara's..."
"It is not the same!" Mayuri Kurotsuchi's gaze sharpened. "Its duration is semi-permanent, and its stability has been greatly improved. It won't collapse just because of some insignificant interference..."
"Then..." Yasutora Sado spoke. "For a Garganta whose technology far surpasses Kisuke Urahara's, how long will it take to complete?"
"I was busy dealing with the Gates of Hell earlier, so I didn't have time to analyze it." Mayuri Kurotsuchi smiled. "Now, it will take three..."
Worried about the situation in the World of the Living, Ichigo Kurosaki pressed him impatiently. "Thirty minutes? Don't tell me it's three hours?"
"Two, one... Analysis complete." Mayuri Kurotsuchi twisted the spiral device on his ear, and a strange light flashed in his eyes. "Thirty minutes? Do you think I'm like you, standing around watching while they fight and doing nothing?"
"Nemu, begin the setup." Even as he spoke, Mayuri Kurotsuchi's mind had never stopped analyzing the mechanism of the Garganta. "Now then, which of you are going to the World of the Living?"
"Isane, Hanatarō," Retsu Unohana instructed. "You two will assist the two Captains as before. Muten and I will return to the World of the Living."
"Yes!" Isane Kotetsu and Hanatarō Yamada answered in unison.
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