chapter 287: tears in the sand

    on the other side of the tunnel—hueco mundo—kazuya couldn’t hold a chuckle. soi fon’s slack-jawed expression was a one-to-one replication of that popular pikachu face meme. rarely the front-line fighter, soi fon had never been to hueco mundo. she had never tasted this dry, warm air. never had she felt the sense of dread of these moonlit deserts of hollows’ ashes.

    yoruichi hopped on soi fon’s head, extending a paw to close her former prote?ge?’s mouth. “don’t let the hollow flies make a nest in there.”

    soi fon grabbed yoruichi’s paw and flung her off. yoruichi merely twisted mid-flight and gently landed on the ground before bouncing onto kazuya’s head.

    “fon fon doesn’t like my wisdom,” she whispered. “she hates me...”

    soi fon closed her eyes and took deep breaths, exhaling her anger. “the soul society isn’t very familiar with hueco mundo. we’ll have to rely on ourselves to navigate.”

    kazuya couldn’t resist reaching out and patting, with his meanest smirk spreading across his face. “let big bro guide you.”

    the muscle beneath her left eye twitched — a sign he had learned to recognize as a precursor to violence. “you’re courting death!”

    being treated like a little sister was worse than being subjected to physical torture; it was simply humiliating. the only thing keeping her fury in check was the mission''s importance, and even that thread seemed to be breaking with each passing moment.

    she was about to explode.

    kazuya frowned as his smirk vanished, leaving behind a face of genuine concern. “relax. control your reiatsu. you don’t wanna give away our location this early.”

    random arrancar encounters weren’t on his wishlist, but with soi fon’s spiritual pressure spiking, the possibility felt inevitable. it was just a matter of when one of those powerful hollows would catch their presence and interrupt them.

    soi fon’s head bobbed in unconscious agreement, fully on board with the idea of having less obstacles in their way. “you are right. i should consciously restrain my reiryoku from leaking.”

    “thank you for being reasonable for once.”

    she fixed him with a stare no less empty than the desert around them. “i’m always reasonable. it’s you who always fails to read the room. you mess with my head.”

    “enough fighting, you two. let’s focus on our objective.” yoruichi scolded them in a firm voice. she patted his face with her paws. “didn’t you want to get the hell away from this place as soon as possible?”

    “well, plans changed. i’m gonna stick around for a while.”

    “what?”

    even soi fon’s attention snapped to him. she had seen him try to end the mission in a day. reasonably, she felt curious about the change in his mind. and frankly, she wished to learn more about him as he’d inevitably become a captain in the future. although she never made active attempts to get to know her fellow captains, she had gone out of her way to investigate him.

    “i called on harribel and others. we’ll overthrow espada and take control of las noches.”

    “well, i’ll be damned.” she raised her paw and flashed her claws. “would you mind if this kitty tests her new sharpened claws?”

    “go ahead. it’ll be a good training session for you...” a knowing smile played across his features. “or you know what, you can go full ham. i’ll be there if your hollow tries to take control.”

    her eyes shone with excitement. there were few moments with him that made him look quite considerate, this was one of them. she slowly climbed his lap and curled up. “kazuya... once this is over, let’s do a lot of training at your place.”

    time had stagnated or even worsened her skills. she had to sharpen her claws, or else she’d get more bullied by him and his women.

    “you mean on bed?”

    “bloody hell, you perv.” she laughed, clearly amused by his comment. “can you not be horny for one minute?”

    he couldn’t help but chuckle. “it’s hard to not be when you’re around.”

    “at least you admit you’re in the company of the sexiest catgirl this world has ever seen.”

    he stroked her head, feeling the silky fur beneath his fingers. “let’s go back.”

    they met up with soi fon, who seemed calm after her previous emotional outburst. she didn’t even look at him like they were archenemies. rather, she showed no hostility, at least for the time being.

    “kazuya, we’ll go in opposite directions and scout for information,” she paused and pointed at the distant sand dune, the one which had been occupied by the two a few seconds ago. “see the mark on that cave. we’ll regroup there.”

    confusion flickered across his features as he searched the featureless cave. he couldn’t find the so-called mark soi fon spoke of.

    soi fon flash-stepped to the boulder. “haph!” letting out a grunt, soi fon smashed her fist into the side of the cave. a fist-sized see-through hole was carved. she made a few more holes from every side of the cave before returning to them. “there. this should be easy to spot from a distance.”

    she looked quite relaxed after letting loose some steam in the form of good ol’ punch random things. crying also helped in her case as she had let out her long-suppressed feelings.

    he placed a hand on her shoulder. “do you feel better now?”

    she crossed her arms with an almost proud smirk, which vanished in the next instance. the sudden reiatsu wrapped around her—and the entire area—was cold and suffocating.

    raising her gaze, she saw two hollows—arrancars approaching at a rapid speed. “arrancars...”