Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls

by thatguyvex

Episode 41: A Hollow Interlude

Episode 41: A Hollow Interlude

The cold, empty winds of Hueco Mundo swept over the vast, pale expanse of Las Noches, the fortress ever looming as one of the only differences in the seemingly endless landscape of white dunes. Adagio had grown accustomed to the cold, finding a sort of twisted familiarity in it, like the great void of the deep ocean. She floated around in a pacing circle near the copse of dead trees where she’d first met Ember. Nearby, a pile of freshly killed lesser Hollows lay in a broken heap, her own handiwork. She’d dragged the smaller, weaker Hollows from the holding pens inside Grogar’s underground lair, using the excuse to her so called “master” that she wanted to take snacks with her while she spied upon Lord Torch and his horde. She wasn't certain if Grogar believed her ruse, but given how confident he seemed to be that any schemes she concocted against him would ultimately fail, she supposed it didn't matter if he believed her or not.

The bodies of the lesser Hollows had been a little difficult to drag all the way here, but she had her agreement with that trio of oafs, Dumbbell and company, and Adagio was far from through with them. The three male Arrancar were as skittish as they were simple, but they’d come to the meeting place, and had seemed surprised that Adagio had kept up her end of the deal. They now gorged themselves on the Hollows Adagio had provided, their munching and slurping reminding Adagio of a pack of starving dogs tearing into table scraps. It disgusted her, but some small part of her also pitied the trio. She had some experience with what it was like to starve for sustenance.

Still, pity did not translate to her being willing to give them a free meal. Floating around to face the three, she adopted a friendly if keen tone, one meant to remind them who was their benefactor.

“Enjoying the meal, boys?”

“Mmph.” Dumbbell mumbled something past a gory mouthful of Hollow, swallowed while pounding his chest to help get the bite down, and then said, “Yeah, at this point just about anything would taste good.” He eyed her with wariness. “So what’s the catch? You said something about wanting us to do you a favor for the food.”

“Glad you remember. Its quite simple, my eager and hungry friends.” Adagio found it all to easy to slip into the role of the charming and smooth talking persona she tended to use when seeking to get others to do as she wished. “I can continue to provide food, and all I want in exchange is for you three to perform minor tasks for me. You can start by finding for me a place within Las Noches that no one is using. A hideout, if you will.”

“Why’d you want a thing like that?” asked Hoops.peeking at her curiously past his overlong, brown bangs, “Ain’t you got a place with Grogar? Or Torch? Or whoever it is you’re working for?”

Adagio rolled her eyes, “Never you mind why I want it. Find a suitable place, and there will be more for you to eat, I promise. And while you’re at it, I’m woefully uninformed of who the major players are in Las Noches. I want to know who all the Espada are, their names at least, and what rivalries might exist between them.”

Dumbbell snorted, “Hell, lady, you want a damn brochure while we’re at it?”

At Adagio’s sharp look, he gulped and help up his hands defensively, “Okay, okay fine. We’ll find you your hideout, and get a list of the info you want. Just keep the food coming, and we’ll hook you up. Um, speaking of which, when can we expect another meal?”

“When you’ve delivered what I want.” Adagio said, flicking her tail, “Now finish up and get to work. I’m expecting Ember soon.”

“Yeah, fine then. C’mon guys, let’s go.”

“Whoa, lemme grab one more bite.” said Score as he snatched up a final piece of Hollow, the others doing the same as they hauled away one or two of the bodies for further consumption. Adagio watched them go, feeling hungry herself. The raw, gnawing feeling inside her was not only growing stronger lately, but it took more and more Hollows to satiate. Perhaps that was a good sign? A sign that she was growing stronger? She didn’t know, but Adagio was getting used to not knowing how her Hollow body worked.

It wasn’t long after Dumbbell and his companions departed that Ember arrived at the copse of dead trees, hopping over the dunes in bounding leaps, and looking a lot more energetic than she had when she’d first awoken after the battle with Garble. The sight actually left a faint feeling of relief and light heartedness in Adagio, a rare sensation since her arrival in Hueco Mundo. She wasn't sure she could really call Ember a friend yet, but thus far the spunky Arrancar girl was by far the closest to being one that Adagio had in this realm.

“Hey, I just saw the dweeb squad go by.” said Ember, jabbing a thumb in the direction Dumbbell and his fellows had gone, “You’re seriously giving those guys food?”

“I keep my bargains.” Adagio said, “They’ll be doing some things for me in return, so don’t think this is some charity case.”

“Fair enough.” Ember said with a quick shrug of her slim shoulders. She then turned and started walking away from Las Noches, “Anyway, follow me. Its about time we got to training you to become an Arrancar.”

“Good, but why are we heading away from the fortress?” asked Adagio as she floated after Ember, easily keeping pace as she swam through the air. Ember moved swiftly, in simple leaps that cleared entire dunes, but Adagio had little trouble floating along in the Arrancar's wake.

“Because to pull this off, we need to get you to somewhere we can have access to a lot of disposable Hollows, but not the low class wimps you've been dealing with so far. I'll be honest, I'm kind of working off of theory rather than practice, here.” said Ember, a weight entering her voice that sounded to Adagio like a nervous swim instructor about to toss a charge into the deep end of the pool. Ember’s face had a tenseness to it, eyes momentarily distant as she went on to say, “You see, here’s the skinny; I was born an Arrancar.”

Adagio looked at Ember with a curious brow flicking upward. “That’s possible?”

Ember smirked slightly, “What, you think we’ve got male and females just for the looks? Same way Soul Reapers can have children, so can Arrancar. Its just a lot more rare for us. The spiritual plumbing doesn't quite work like it should, so legit offspring are basically like one in a million chances.” She sighed, “It’s partly why dad can get a bit... weird, around me.”

“I think that ‘weird’ is actually called being protective.” said Adagio with a chuckle, floating up beside Ember and casting a questioning look at her. “So why tell me this? What does it have to do with my training?”

“Only that I need you to understand I didn’t do this the ‘normal’ way, I was born to it, so I’m kind of working off of theory and what my dad’s told me about how the process works.” Ember looked around, eyes scanning the horizon until she nodded, apparently having spotted something. Adagio certainly couldn’t tell what the Arrancar girl was looking for. All of Hueco Mundo looked the same to her, just more and more featureless white sand occasionally dotted with a few boulders or stray dead trees.

“So how does it work, normally?” asked Adagio.

“Well, short version is; you got to tear your mask off.” Ember pointed at Adagio’s face, which was essentially shaped just like her original siren form save for the fact that her features were somewhat more pronounced by a bony white Hollow mask that seamlessly blended in with the rest of her body. Well, that and the clawed hands instead of hooves. Really that part was a fairly useful addition, what with the benefits of having thumbs.

Adagio blinked, a sense of unease creeping into her as she ran a talon over the bony ridge of the mask covering her face. “I take it its not quite as simple as just ripping it off with brute force?”

“Well, no. I figure you’ve noticed by now with killing lesser Hollows that if you break their mask, that makes them dissipate entirely. The mask is like the core of our power. Destroying it, destroys the Hollow.”

The unease only grew worse inside Adagio, but she forced it back with a hardened glare, her voice turning icy. “So how do I do it without destroying myself?”

“The way I understand it is you’ve got to have a desire you want so badly that when faced with the void of destruction, your soul just refuses to fade, and instead forces itself to evolve past the need for a mask.” A helpless laugh escaped Ember like a puff of wind. “Problem is, I’ve only got a vague notion of how to get you to do that. I’ve actually watched it happen once before...” a frown crossed her features, “With Garble of all people.”

“That lout!? You watched him evolve into an Arrancar?” Adagio was incredulous, to say the least.

“Yeah, sure did. Bastard was cocky even as an Adjuchas, and just some bootlick to the former Fifth Espada before my dad took over the horde. He would go hunting other Adjuchas and Gillians, trying to evolve into a Vasto Lorde, the strongest type of Hollow there is without becoming an Arrancar. I used to follow him to the Forest of Menos just to watch him get beat around and laugh at his ass.” With a snort Ember kicked at the sands, shaking her head. “Much as I hate the jerk, I had to give him credit, he just wouldn’t quit, you know? He wanted to get stronger so damned badly, desired it so much, he threw himself at other Hollows, entire packs of them, over and over again. Didn’t seem to care how much it hurt, he just kept at it. He’s a damn pain in the ass moron, but you’ve got to respect that kind of determination. And the thing is... it worked.”

They arrived at a place among the dunes that contained a deep depression in the ground, a hole that led down into darkness. It was some sort of cave, although it didn’t look naturally formed to Adagio, but rather carved straight down into the desert as if by great force, like a huge fist had just punched a hole in the ground. The edges of the hole were melted, uneven stone, and as Adagio looked down into the dark she thought she could see distant ground, and a forest of towering stalagmites.

“Where are we?” Adagio asked.

“An entrance to the Forest of Menos. It's a massive underground network of caves that spreads beneath miles of Hueco Mundo. Gillian Hollows gather there, preying upon each other endlessly. There are also small tribes of Adjuchas Hollows that make their home down there, trying to stay out of sight of Las Noches.” Ember cracked her knuckles and stood on the edge of the hole. “Garble evolved into an Arrancar down there, after getting so close to death I was sure the dude was done for. Watched him rip his mask clean off, and rather than be destroyed, he transformed. So if you want to become an Arrancar yourself, I’m figuring you need to do the same thing.”

Adagio looked over at Ember, hesitant. “That’s it? That’s your plan, throw me at an army of Hollows and hope I don’t kill myself when I eventually get desperate enough to tear my mask off? This isn’t much better than staying with Grogar and dealing with his arena!”

“Hey, I never promised this would surefire work!” snapped Ember, “I just told you I’d show you how to evolve, and far as I know, this is the way to do it! I mean come on, if it worked for Garble are you seriously telling me you can’t do it?”

That actually stung Adagio’s pride rather deeply. Her opinion of Garble was about the same as the piles of trash she had to clean up after a hard day of work at the mall food court. She didn’t think Ember was exactly a master manipulator, but she’d certainly found the right button to push to get Adagio’s sense of ego riled up. Her eyes glowing yellow, and swishing her tail in angry swipes, she growled, “Alright, fine. How do we get down there?”

“Like this.” Ember said, and booted Adagio down the hole.

“Screeeeeewww yoooooouuu!” Adagio shouted as she fell, only to blink and remember at the last second that she could float. Coughing with embarrassment she slowed her fall until she gently landed on the stony cavern floor. A second later Ember, without even bothering to slow her fall, jumped down as well. At Ember’s raised eyebrow Adagio looked away, face flushing red.

“S-shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything.” Ember said with a smirk.

“No but you’re thinking it!”

“Am I now?”

“Augh, you’re as bad as Aria...” Adagio muttered, then she started to take stock of their surroundings. The stalagmites she’d seen from up above were joined by nearly as many hanging stalactites, each one the size of small skyscrapers. The cavern ceiling had to have been at least a hundred meters up, and stretched out around for well beyond Adagio’s field of view. While there was no source of light down here that she could see, everything seemed to be bathed in a pale, dull glow that didn’t have a clear origin. Then again, Hueco Mundo’s surface was much the same way, so Adagio didn’t feel much need to question that aspect of this strange realm.

“So now what?” she asked, and Ember grinned.

“Now? Now we go hunting.”

----------

Within the massive internal dome of Las Noches, at its very center, was its pinnacle tower, the core of the fortress’ immense structure. This tower expanded through the top of that hundreds of meters high dome to pierce into the black sky of Hueco Mundo, and it was near the apex of this tower that the grand throne chamber of the Espadas was located.

The throne hall was a fifty meter wide chamber, stretching the full length of the tower floor it was situated on. Pale blue carved stone formed a set of tiered thrones on either side of the chamber, four on the first tier, four more on a second tier, and finally two more thrones that rested upon the chamber’s two highest tiers, one just slightly below the massive white carved throne sitting upon the chamber’s highest point. Huge stone doors at one end of the hall stood yawning open as one by one a set of figures strode into the room.

The first in was a truly strange looking individual, a tall and disturbingly lanky framed man who was clad head to toe in a tight fitting white suit with unusually puffy, flared sleeves and white gloves. A tall mask covering a head that looked more like a metal bulb with small eye slits than a normal human head topped the man’s shoulders and he carried a thin looking blade of bone sheathed over his shoulder, the weapon's hilt like a human femur trapped within a miniature rib cage.

Behind this man was Squirk, sneering in his red, glowering face as he spat at the man ahead of him. “Move faster, Smooze! I want this damn meeting over with!”

The odd, masked fellow, Smooze, just spun around, walking backwards, and made a mocking ‘after you’ gesture with his gloved hands without so much as saying a word. Squirk snorted as he went past the Smooze, which tipped an invisible hat at Squirk before hopping up towards his own throne, taking a seat beside the irate Ninth Espada.

Next to enter the chamber was Grogar, the elder Espada glancing at his two lessers and giving them a knowing smirk. “Good evening gentleman.” Grogar said with mock politeness, “So pleasant to see you arriving ahead of your betters to bow your heads in greeting to our arrival.”

Smooze didn’t react beyond making a small, uncaring shrug, while Squirk literally steamed around his ears. “Well, some of us can make it up the stairs without getting winded, old goat.”

Grogar laughed in a dry, desiccated sound that echoed through the chamber. “You throw insults like a braying dog that knows it can only bark. Amusing, and ineffectual.”

A high pitched, feminine cackle entered the room alongside its owner, a rotund woman with a wide, froggish face marked by wart-like flecks of white bone growth. Like the other Arrancar she wore white, in the form of a thick blouse top and stretched out tights, with floppy black and white laced boots. None of it flattered her figure, but the woman walked with a bouncy step, as if filled with energy. Carrot red hair fell in a tangled mess around her head, and she raised her hand on the hilt of a iron handled sword that looked like someone had strapped a blade to the end of a fire poker. A prominent Hollow hole was placed right in the middle of her flabby gut, which rolled as she laughed.

“Gwhaahaa! All you boys fighting is just such a pretty picture. This is why none of you will amount to anything. Too busy playing slap-fight with words rather than doing real work. Well, maybe except for Grogy. You got a decent head on your shoulders, honeypot.”

Grogar visibly shuddered, not doing very well in hiding his revulsion as the woman traced thick fingers along his arm and blew him a kiss as she rather nimbly jumped up to her own throne and took a seat, crossing her legs.

“I thank you for the complement, Hydia, but perhaps we can refrain from the use of pet names? It gives... entirely the wrong impression concerning our relationship.”

“Hmm,” Hydia drummed her fingers on the arm of her throne, a look of pretend thoughtfulness crossing her features. “Nah. I think I like coming up with little names for you, Grogypoo. Maybe when you are strong enough to challenge my rank as Seventh Espada, we can negotiate other things I can call you.”

“A day that cannot come soon enough.” Grogar silently grumbled as he took his own throne on Hydia’s side of the chamber, filling out the last of the lowest tier thrones.

The next to Espada entered the chamber at the same time, both looking as if they were trying to outdo the other in terms of holding their head high and shoulder past the other. One was Torch, his muscular frame towering over his compatriot. While Torch’s number ‘5’ Espada tattoo was prominently displayed on his chest, the other man seemed to almost self consciously try to hide the ‘6’ etched across the flesh surrounding his left eye, using the long bangs of his thick brown hair to try to obscure it as he glared with sharp orange eyes at Torch. This man had a youthful appearance about him, with sharp aquiline features and a hawkish nose, which had an angular, almost beak-like ridge of white Hollow bone running up is length. He was lean and muscular, decently tall but nowhere near Torch’s mass, with golden tanned skin. While Torch wore his massive axe across his back, the younger looking man beside him carried a gladius styled sword at his right hip, indicating a left handed nature. He wore a open, white jacket and loose pants, flared at the bottom, and like Torch this man seemed to favor gold bangles and anklets, along with a wide golden torc that partially covered the Hollow hole in his sternum.

Hydia smiled widely at the two, waving, “Hiiii Torch! Hiiii Guto. Didn’t kill each other on the way up, eh?”

Torch bellowed out a laugh from his gut, slapping the man beside him on the shoulder. “Bwhaahaa! Not today. Guto was being super polite, weren’t you?”

Guto, the Sixth Espada, sucked in a deep breath and let it out in a slow hiss. “We have more pressing concerns than your posturing. Lord Tirek would not have called this meeting without good reason, and I suspect it has to do with your failures with the Quincy.”

“Who’s failures, exactly?” came the cold tone of Catrina as the Third Espada glided into the chamber with steps that rolled her hips seductively, but only a fool would look anywhere other than her frozen, angry eyes as she brushed past Guto. “I would be very careful before you start making such claims, boy. My tolerance for buffons is stretched thin of late.”

Guto didn’t back down from Catrina’s deathly stare, his own eyes flaring. “What else would you call your attack upon the Quincy? From what I understand you failed to do more than kill a handful of their barely trained pups, and tucked tail to run the moment their Sternritter arrived.”

Torch snorted, flames flickering out of his nostrils, “Careful there Guto. Weren’t the Sternritters we retreated from, but their King. I’ll break the bones of Sternritter all day and glory in the battle, but their King isn’t for us to face.”

A dismissive frown crossed Guto’s face as he shook his head and with a flickering, swift movement using Sonido he appeared at his throne and sat down. “If we were willing to fight instead of ‘retreating’ every time we felt outmatched maybe we could end this eternal purgatory of a stalemate.”

“Only the young and foolish fight without a guarantee of victory.” said Catrina as she took to her own throne with a graceful Sonido that left her afterimage doing the talking until she was seated, “But I can’t expect you to understand the finer strategies of warfare.”

“Aww leave off him Catrina.” said Torch as he took his own thrown, mumbling as he settled his bulk into it. “Grr, damn thing is still too small. Prefer my own throne to this dinky chair.”

Hydia let out a sigh, “And once again we’re short our Number Four. Does that guy think these meetings are optional or what? Catrina did you see that walking brick wall coming up the stairs?”

Catrina wrinkled her nose in faint disgust as she looked at Hydia, saying, “I did not. I presume the Fourth Espada will do as he usually does, and forgoes participating in... anything.”

Guto growled, “Why does Lord Tirek tolerate such disrespect?”

“Because, like all things in Hueco Mundo, it is not a matter of respect but a matter of power, and the Fourth Espada possesses power sufficient to hold his own counsel should he so choose.”

The voice that spoke was a deep, resonant, and potently feminine voice. It belonged to a tall, statuesque woman who strode into the throne chamber with all the presence of a Queen attending her court. Sheer white fabric formed an elegant dress that at once covered much of her onyx black body, yet somehow tantalized the imagination with the curves hidden beneath. Knee high black boots clicked off the stone floor with pointed steps. Eyes the color of shining jade looked upon the room with smokey pleasure as all heads turned towards her. Near perfect features and full lips smiled in poisonous promise. A single, jagged horn of white bone rose from a head of long, silky smooth turquoise hair. The number ‘2’ was prominently etched in pure white at the base of the woman’s throat, a reminder to all of her position and power as she stepped upon the very air as if there were stairs leading to her high throne, just shy of the tallest in the chamber.

At her left hip was a long, steeply curved blade encased in a obsidian black sheath, its web-shaped hilt carved from green emerald and its hilt wrapped in alternating silk of black and white. Her slim, dark fingers clasped the edges of her throne’s arms and she looked down upon the other Espada.

“Most off all, it is Lord Tirek’s will to allow or disallow our fourth member’s absentee nature, and it is not for any of you to dare question his judgment. Is that understood?”

The other Espada all exchanged looks, some nervous, others sullen, with Guto gulping and nodding his head in stiff acknowledgment. “Of course, Lady Chrysalis. I was only incensed by the seeming disrespect shown to our Lord, not questioning his decision to allow the Fourth’s absence from these meetings.”

Chrysalis waved a hand in a gesture as if brushing away a gant, “Consider the matter forgiven, but I would suggest not bringing the subject up in Lord Tirek’s presence. Now, perhaps we can enjoy some silence until he arrives?”

There was no objection from among the other Espada, although Catrina shot sidelong looks towards Chrysalis that were as venomous as they were jealous. It wasn’t hard to see why. As much as Catrina was a vision of beauty, putting her next to Chrysalis was like placing a well crafted by essentially basic comic book drawing beside an original Picasso. Minutes stretched by silently as the Espada waited their ruler. Smooze twiddled his thumbs, and Squirk silently smoldered, while Hydia continued to drum her fingers on one of her throne’s arms. Grogar glanced at his fellows with calculating eyes, while Torch started to nod off. Guto sullenly sat, arms crossed and glaring, while Catrina continued to try to hide dagger look towards Chrysalis, who presided over the chamber with silent patience.

Then footsteps were heard approaching the chamber, echoing loudly. All eyes turned towards the doors, each Espada save Chrysalis unconsciously holding their breath for a moment. For a few it might have been a reflexive action of reverence, but for most, it as fueled by simple, primal fear of the man entering the throne chamber.

Power preceded him like a invisible tidal wave, an aura of such crushingly potent reiatsu that even the most prideful or stoic among the gathered Espada couldn’t remain fully composed, sweat breaking out on more than a few brows. Every step the man took was purposeful and radiated with strength. Every swing of his massive, thickly muscled arms, red as scarlet blood, carried a sense of unmatched prowess.

He was not as large as Torch, but somehow the man still made the Fifth Espada seem small by simple gravity of presence. He wore no shirt, leaving his thick red chest bare. An unusually small Hollow Hole existed right above where his heart would be, like a black pit. He wore wide, loose white pants tucked into thick and heavy looking black leather boots. A black leather strap circled his frame, holding a giant red leather scabbard upon his back that contained a broad bladed claymore whose hilt was forged from gold and whose cross guard was shaped like curved bull horns, a shape that were mirrored by the bone white horns curling from his large, thick brow, stemming from a crest of bone shaped like a jagged crown. His strong features showed a prominent chin with a full and stark white beard, which matched the large waves of white hair that fell down his back like a lion’s mane. Deep sunken eyes were solid black save for bright golden iris that looked around him with amused confidence. The number ‘1’ was etched in black in on the back of both of his hands, just above silver bangles he wore around his wrists.

Tirek did as Chrysalis had, seeming to walk on air through sheer weight of his power, and climbed above even her to the tallest of the chamber’s thrones, a massive and tall backed chair of pure white carved marble. The undisputed Primera Espada took his throne as if born to sit it, his aura of power washing over his subjects with the harshest and most solidly real of reminders that while the other Espada were Lords among Hollows... Hueco Mundo had but one King.

One by one each head of the other Espada bowed to Tirek, whether reluctantly or not. Even Chrysalis, who bowed her head last, still bowed, through she kept her lidded eyes focused on the man who sat above her.

After a moment, Tirek raised a hand. His voice was gravely and filled with deep, baritone power. “Enough. We have business to deal with. Catrina, Torch, your task to assault the Quincy-” Tirek spat the word as if it were foul tasting, “-went as I predicted. You performed adequately, though your failure to inflict more damage was displeasing.”

As if directing a blade Tirek’s reiatsu sharpened, crushing down on both Catrina and Torch with invisible, but horrifically potent force. Both Espada choked and gasped, Torch reflexively growling while Catrina taking deep breaths and hastily began to speak.

“I-It is understandable, L-Lord Tirek that perhaps you might... might wish we had done more, but with the Quincy King arriving much faster than any of us could have anticipated we had no choice but to fall back.” The woman’s feline features trembled, but she maintained a small sense of dignity as she held her back straight and forced her voice to calm. “I know well that you have decreed that none save you may cross blades with the Quincy’s self-proclaimed ‘King’. Neither I nor Torch would ever dream of going against your will, my Lord. The Quincy’s pathetic ruler is for you to crush, when you will, how you will.”

As if with the snap of his fingers Tirek’s sharpened spiritual pressure fell off of Catrina and Torch, both Espada breathing easier as Tirek settled back in his throne and gave an amused grunt. “Always the silver tongue, Catrina. Yet you speak truly.” His golden eyes burned with hatred, unmasked and unmitigated. “Sombra is mine to destroy. Hmph, none of you, save perhaps my lovely Chrysalis, might match him in battle. Well enough you fled when he arrived, yet I would have preferred more Quincy blood be spilled.”

Chrysalis, a inviting if pointedly thin smile crossing her features, nodded to Tirek and said, “Our ends were achieved nonetheless, my Lord. As you have planned the Quincy have been provoked in a manner they never have before. Thanks to Lord Squirk’s unique powers over Garganta we have struck at the heart of the Quincy, at their children, and like foolish parents the rest of the Quincy shall be howling for our blood. Sombra will have no choice but to launch a retaliatory attack upon us, a move we shall be more than prepared for. Soon, much more Quincy blood shall spill, fresh upon the sands of Hueco Mundo.”

Triek smiled in a flash of white teeth, letting loose a chuckle heavy with pleased bloodlust. “As I have planned, yes. That is why I have called all of you here. The Quincy shall come, sooner or later, and our strategy must be planned. When Sombra and his forces arrive, it shall be right into our trap.”

Tirek raised a hand and made a crushing gesture, closing it into a fist. “A trap that will crush the life from our enemies and leave their souls for us to dine upon. Soon, the stalemate that's kept us locked in this eternal war shall come to an end, and before long the Quincy and Soul Reapers both be nothing more than memory.”

----------

The deep claw marks torn through the stone ground and the blasted chunks that were the remains of several stalagmites were clear enough signs of recent battle, even without the fresh stink of blood and echoes of Hollow spirit energy hanging in the air. Adagio wrinkled her nose at the smell, tracing a talon over some of the claw marks gouged in the floor beneath her. The marks were far too large to have been made by a lesser Hollow, and what little she’d seen of Gillian-class Hollows didn’t make her think they had made these marks either.

“Probably a large Adjuchas-class.” said Ember, peering over Adagio’s shoulder, her Zanpaktou drawn and lightly twirling in one hand. Ember’s eyes narrowed slightly, “Definitely larger than normal.”

Adagio looked at her own body, not much larger than her original siren form, and glanced questioningly at Ember. “I’m Adjuchas-class and I'm not particularly large. Just how big are we supposed to get?”

“Huh? Oh, it varies a lot between individuals I guess. You’re not likely to get any bigger than you are now, but other Adjuchas’ can get nearly as tall as Gillians. It's not an indicator of power, just a random factor of size. Don’t let it get to you.”

A small vein popped up onto Adagio’s forehead as she snorted and looked away, “Who’s letting it get to them? I prefer my present size, thank you very much. So, even though Adjuchas can get large, it doesn’t mean they’re stronger than us.”

“Nah, although I wouldn’t let one smack you around to find out. Mass is mass. C’mon, this battle didn’t happen too long ago. The Adjuchas who fought here is probably not too far away.” Ember’s lips quirked in a brief frown, “Although it is weird. Adjuchas rarely go around hunting solo. This one should’ve been part of a tribe.”

Adagio looked around the smashed stalagmites, also noting that one stalactite had been ripped free from the ceiling and had crashed into the ground not far away. “Couldn’t our oversized Adjuchas just be a loner type?”

“You don’t get it, the Forest of Menos is one of most dangerous places in Hueco Mundo to live because of all the Gillians, who will instinctively gang up on other Hollows. I don’t care how badass an Adjuchas you are, you get a three or four dozen Gillians on your ass, and you're in trouble.” Ember grinned, “Kind of the point of bringing you here, because you won’t get a more desperate and dangerous fight to train in. But that’s also why the Adjuchas who do make their home here always travel in packs. A loner wouldn’t last long.”

“Oh, but we’re okay because you’re here?” Adagio asked with a incredulous roll of her eyes, to which Ember’s grin transmuted to a smirk as she bounced her Zanpaktou off her shoulder.

“Duh, I’m an Arrancar. I’m on a totally different level. I mean, okay sure I wouldn't want to take on a whole horde of Gillians by myself, but I can hang tight against a dozen of the big bastards. And hey, worse comes to worse, I can bail pretty fast.”

“How reassuring.” Adagio deadpanned and Ember shrugged.

“Hey, I said I’d help you, and you’re pretty cool and all, but I’m not dying down here for your fishy ass. I’ll try to pull you out of the frying pan if things get too hot, but there comes a point where it's every Hollow for themselves. Just the law of the jungle, Adagio.”

“Oh, believe me I’m all too familiar with the sentiment.” Adagio muttered and sniffed the air, “So if this lone Adjuchas is stirring up trouble, then they’ll probably attract a lot of Gillians as well. Perhaps following their trail would net us what we’re after.”

“Not the worst idea. Beats wandering aimlessly, and hey, even if we don’t find any Gillians, this Adjuchas might be a good target for you.” Ember closed her eyes, and Adagio could tell the Arrancar was opening up her Hollow spirit sense, her ‘Pesquisas’. Having practiced its use herself Adagio did the same, focusing inwardly upon herself and touching upon the core of her Hollow power. Letting that power out in a small, invisible sonar-like wave, Adagio picked up on the large traces of Hollow energy left by the Adjuchas... and something else.

“Ember, do you feel that?” she asked, eyes snapping open.

“Yeah, that’s weird.” Ember said, frowning deeper than before. “That... feels like an Arrancar. But not quite. It's like the energy is all scrambled and screwy.”

“Whatever it is, we can follow it. Let’s go.” Adagio said, swishing her tail and swimming through the air in the direction of the Hollow energies. The trail was strong, and easy to follow through the thick forest of towering stalagmites. Ember kept pace with Adagio without trouble, making long, casual leaps. The sight caused a question to pop into Adagio’s head.

“Say, Ember, when I was in the human world I’ve seen Hollows that can fly, and when you fought Garble both of you could stand on the air. Why can’t you do that here?”

“Oh, we can.” said Ember, momentarily halting herself in mid-air, feet skidding along empty space until she stopped. “It’s just harder to do it here. Takes a bit more skill and energy to pull it off. Jumping is way easier and more comfortable than trying to walk on the air all the time. Your flight thing is weirder and more rare an ability.”

“I see.” Adagio thought about that for a moment, then nodded, “Good.”

“We’re getting close.” Ember pointed ahead, where Adagio could hear the increasingly loud echos of a fight. The dark cavern ahead lit up with occasional flashes of red light, and the howling of several Hollows could be heard, droning and hungry. These reverberating howls were joined by the periodic, booming bark of a roar, as if from the throat of some huge beast. And, strangely, this was all punctuated by some rather jovially crazy laughter.

Through her Pesquisa senses Adagio could start to pick up on multiple Hollows getting closer, directly ahead. Not just a few Gillians, or even a few dozen. Adagio took a deep breath, hands clenching, teeth tightly pressed, “Ember, are you sensing the same thing I am?”

The Arrancar’s eyes were closed as she focused on her senses, having no trouble avoiding passing stalagmites during her flying leaps. “Yeah. Feels like a shit ton of them.”

“Is that the official, technical term?”

“Yes, we measure things in ‘shit tons’ which are smaller than a ‘fuck ton’ but more than an ‘ass ton’. We call it the ‘Hollow Metric’. And I’d says there’s at least one metric shit ton of Gillians up ahead. At least forty, give or take. Also feels like our mysterious Adjuchas and not-Arrancar are there too, having a real party.”

It didn’t take more than half a minute to reach the battle site. The cavern went into a slight rise, only to rapidly drop off to a sheer cliff about fifty meters deep, where an entire extra cavern stretched out in all directions in an underground valley a good half mile wide and running off beyond sight to the right and left. Within this valley a huge mass of Gillians surrounded their prey, the giant near hundred foot tall Hollows smashing into each other in a mob to try and get at their targets.

The targets in question were difficult to spot at first among the mass of collossal Gillians, but as Adagio and Ember reached the edge of the cliff and peered over the side to observe the fight, they both spotted the ones the Gillians were trying, and thus far failing, to devour.

One had to be the Adjuchas-class Hollow who’d made the huge claw markings from earlier. It was just as tall as the Gillians surrounding it, perhaps even a bit taller if it stood fully erect instead of hunched over. Bright red scales covered most of the Adjuchas Hollow’s saurian body, melded with wide, bony armored Hollow plates across its back, legs, arms, and tail. Small spines sprouted from around the Hollow mask, and flowed along the ridge of the creature’s spine and poked out from its elbows. A few patches of pale white feathers tinged around the edges in red crested the back of the Adjuchas-class Hollow’s skull, the fringes of its arms,and the tip of its long and powerful tail. It looked to Adagio’s eyes a lot like a extremely thick muscled version of those dinosaurs with the foot claws from those movies Sonata liked so much. Riptors? Reptars? Something like that. Adagio usually checked her mind out the door when Sonata put on movies. Regardless, this particular specimen was like a red scaled version of one of those dinosaurs, only one that had hit the gym one too many times. And a hundred feet tall. Covered in bone armor. With a massive Hollow’s skull mask covering its face save for the holes to expose its angry yellow eyes and mouth filled with saber-like fangs.

The Gillians kept trying to rush this massive Adjuchas, attempting to sink their teeth into it with lunges of their massive black cloaked bodies. The huge dinosaur Adjuchas kept wheeling about like an expert boxer, never staying still, shifting on its giant clawed feet as it lashed out with every limb to keep the horde at bay. Talons or fangs, even its huge whip of a tail, all bashed and slashed into Gillian flesh to keep the Hollows from overwhelming the Adjuchas, dark red Hollow blood spilling all over the stones. Yet every time a Gillain fell back, injured, or dropped dead from a fatal wound, there was another taking its place.

The only thing keeping the Adjuchas from being entirely swarmed, despite its ferocious defense, was the other Hollow riding on the Adjuchas’ back. He was whooping and laughing like a madman, in a voice that Adagio vaguely remembered.

“Whoooyeeah! You bitches want more! Come get more! You ain’t got nothing on us, right Gaw!?”

The Adjuchas barked a roar that Adagio noticed somewhat sounded like the name the other Hollow gave it. As for his name, Adagio didn’t know it, but she remembered him. He looked much the same as the brief encounter she’d had with him back when he’d interrupted her and Sunset’s conversation in the human world, what felt like forever ago. The half-Arrancar still had a somewhat shark-like skull mask covering his head, with only crazy, piercing blue eyes and the hint of a human face in the shadowed mouth of the mask. He still wore white pants and a vest, though vastly more torn than before, and he carried his curved, shark-tooth blade in his right hand, waving it like a crazed cavalryman astride his mount... if said mount was a gargantuan Hollow dinosaur.

The reason the Gillians hadn’t overwhelmed either, aside from the Adjuchas’ viscous fighting skills, was that the half-Arrancar was firing off crimson Cero blasts into the mob at random, the red beams cutting into any Gillian that the Adjuchas failed to keep back.

“Wow,” said Ember, “That’s got to be the biggest Adjuchas I’ve seen. She’s massive!”

“She? How can you tell? Ugh, don’t tell me you can see that kind of detail from here.” Adagio said, grimacing.

Ember guffawed, “What? No. It's just a scent thing. You can’t tell?”

“Not at all.” Adagio shook her head, “And not important. I’m more concerned with that male.”

“Really? Doesn’t strike me as your type.”

“Not what I mean! I recognize him. I encountered him in the living world. Figured he’d be dead by now.” Adagio said as a trio of Gillians came in behind the Adjuchas, one getting blown away by a Cero to the face from the half-Arrancar, but the other two managed to sink their teeth into the Adjuchas’ tail, causing a shrieking bark of pain from the dinosaur-like Hollow as it, she, turned around and started to tear into her tormentors. However this also took her attention from other Gillians, who started to swarm in from the other side.

“Well, looks like he’s going to be dead soon, along with his overgrown dino buddy.” said Ember, shrugging, “Oh well, we can clean up the Gillians once they’re out of the picture- Hey, Adagio, where are you going!?”

As Adagio floated up and then over the cliff edge, flying for the battle below, she called over her shoulder, “Just trust me and follow my lead. I know what I’m doing.”

At least she sincerely hoped she knew what she was doing. Adagio was trusting her own instincts in this case, an instinct for opportunity. While she was here to train to become an Arrancar and certainly hadn’t lost focus on that goal, she wasn’t about to pass up a golden chance at obtaining an entirely different kind of power; allies. That’s what she was doing with those three oafish bullies back in Las Noches, and this looked like an opening to do the same here. If she was going to rise in prominence and power among the Hollows she needed more than raw strength, she’d need capable subordinates.

As Sunset Shimmer might say... let’s go make some friends. Adagio thought with not a little bit of sarcastic irony as she flew downward into the fray and let the siren gem floating in the center of her chest’s Hollow hole charge up with a deadly scarlet light.

Her discharged Cero cut a destructive crimson swath through the air, ripping right through the pointed skull mask of one of the three Gillians that had charged Gaw’s blind side. Much as she’d hoped for Ember saw what Adagio was doing and played along, flashing down with the blurring high speed power of a Sonido, appearing in front of the mask of one of the two surviving Gillians and thrusting her sword right between its eyes. Ember then, with a feral snarl, tore her blade upward to cleave the Gillian’s skull in half, causing the Hollow to stumble and fall in its tracks.

The third Gillian still continued on, heedless of its comrades’ demise, and brought out its thin, bone white hands from the folds of its massive cloak to grasp at Gaw’s back and try to bite through one of the Adjuchas’ thick bone plates. Gaw, having used both her razor sharp maw and equally devastating claws to rend apart the Gillians that had bit her tail now swung about with a hate filled look and equally menacing growl. Her own jaw opened wide to snap around the neck of the Gillian on her back, crushing down with punishing force as she tore the Gillian off of her and forcefully slammed it to the ground. The Gillian, before it could rise, found a massively clawed foot, with huge scythe-like talons, smashing its face and Hollow mask to pieces.

“Whoa!” shouted the half-Arrancar, pointing at Adagio and Ember, “Where in the name of Tirek’s left nutsack did you girls come from!?”

“Nevermind that.” snapped Adagio, “Questions can come after there’s no more... wait, left what!?”

Further talk was forestalled by the fact that the Gillians, sensing fresh prey, now redoubled their attacks, rushing in from all sides. Adagio found one snapping its massive jaws right for her, which she nimbly dodged by grabbing its pointed nose and swinging herself up onto the Gillian’s head. Once there she fired a Cero blast straight down, collapsing the Gillian’s skull. Any satisfaction she might have felt was swallowed up by adrenaline, panic, and a unflattering string of curses as multiple other Gillians opened their maws wide, howling as they belched forth a barrage of their own Ceros. Adagio flew about in a evasive series of rolls and dives, ending up flying along the ground as Ceros tore through the stone right behind her.

Ember flitted among the Gillians at high speed, barely slowing long enough to make powerful slashes that tore through Gillian maks like a hyperactive hummingbird with a chainsaw. Adagio was envious of the speed, as she was quickly getting boxed in by the Gillians unleashing rapid fire Cero blasts around her, with each passing second leaving her with less space to maneuver.

Fortunately neither the half-Arrancar or his gargantuan ally, Gaw, were idle. The whooping madman jumped off of Gaw, using her head like a springboard, which elicited an annoyed growl from the Adjuchas Hollow. Heedless of his ally’s irritation the half-Arrancar latched onto the nearest Gillian’s face, digging his sword into its left jawbone and then yanked it to the left just as it was discharging a Cero. The Gillian spun around with a howl of pain as its crimson beam tore through the lines of its comrades instead, which caused them all to stagger in confusion... confusion that the massive Gaw took full advantage off.

Swift for something her size, the reptilian Adjuchas jumped full body into the group of staggered Gillians, landing right atop one unfortunate Gillian that was crushed to the ground under Gaw’s massive weight and ripping talons. Barking a roar filled with unrestrained bloodlust, the Adjuchas then turned into a whirling blender of flashing claws, fang, and tail, tearing into the Gillians around her with ferocious abandon. The Gillians responded with equal, single-minded fury, heedless of injury as they rushed Gaw with gnashing teeth, many of them firing point-blank Cero blasts into the Adjuchas.

The thick armor bone-plates covering much of her body helped Gaw weather the blasts exploding over her, but she still let out a shriek of equal parts pain and rage, blood pouring from freshly blasted wounds. For all her vicious and brutal fighting, Gaw was still surrounded and dealing with dozens of foes, each one near her size and mindlessly focused on attacking her regardless of how much she tore into them. The wounds were starting to mount, visibly slowing the huge Adjuchas down.

Slashing into the horde of Gillians, the half-Arrancar paused between driving his sword into the giant Hollows to shout the equivalent of back-seat fighting tips to his dinosaur-like comrade. “Gaw, one coming in on your left! No! My left! Duck! Now to the right! Your right this time, not mine! Whoa, look out, that dude’s biting the shit out of your leg! Bite him in the face!”

Adagio had never seen a hundred foot tall dinosaur Hollow give a death glare before, but now she had, as Gaw provided her half-Arrancar companion with what could only be described as murder incarnate distilled into a single glare. Then Gaw’s entire body began to gleam with baleful light a darker shade of red than her scales. She’d stopped moving for a moment, and the Gillians tried to take advantage of this, many of them piling atop her, biting and howling as the did so. For a moment Adagio was certain the Adjuchas was finished, but a second later Gaw’s distinctive roar split the air, and multiple spikes of crimson energy speared upwards across her body. The dark scarlet spikes of energy seemed to jut out from her small spines, with larger spikes also sprouting from along her spine, elbows, and the tip of her tail. Each spike pierced right through the Gillians trying to pile onto her, and like a dog shaking off water Gaw began to thrash about wildly. The energy spikes covering her body shredded the Gillians on her, killing at least half a dozen in a shower of gore that sent so much blood spraying into the air that for a second or two it all but rained crimson.

This seemed to make the other Gillians hesitate, even in their seeming mindless state. However the attack also seemed to drain Gaw, the energy spikes not lasting very long and vanishing moments later, leaving the Adjuchas sagging and breathing heavily. Sensing the weakness, the remaining Gillians, perhaps two dozen, started to surge forward again, but Adagio and Ember rushed into the opening Gaw’s attack had created.

Side by side, Ember and Adagio both charged up Cero attacks, the intense crimson beams discharging simultaneously to smash through the center of the Gillian line, destroying several. The Gillians responded in kind, letting loose streams of energy that Adagio and Ember had to swiftly dodge. With the Gillian numbers reduced there was more room to maneuver, and Adagio had an easier time closing the distance while weaving between Cero blasts. By now her blood was pounding and her senses sharpened to what felt like painful heights of awareness as she reached the Gillians and tore headlong into the face of the first one she reached. Her talons bit deeply into the bone-like substance of the Gillians mask, and Adagio lost herself for a moment in the simple Hollow instinct to feed as she bit and ripped into the Gillian’s flesh.

Nearby Ember and the half-Hollow were both using their swords to cleave into other Gillians, slowly forcing the ever dwindling line of massive Hollows to thin out even more.

Finally, whether by some unspoken communication or by simple instinct strong enough to penetrate even the Gillians’ simple minds, the dozen or so surviving Hollows started to retreat. They took lumbering steps back, and with frustrated and hungry howls, started to turn and flee.

Watching the Gillians begin to run in panic, it was like it flipped a switch deep inside Adagio’s brain. A primitive, basic instinctual hunger that burned hotly through her body and made her jaws salivate. A deep growl issued forth from her mouth, and she realized she wasn’t the only one. Ember, the half-Arrancar, both were grinning like feral wolves scenting blood. Gaw reared up to her full, impressive height, and let out a piercing roar, eyes fixated on their fleeing foes... no, not foes; prey.

A part of Adagio was disgusted and repulsed by this feeling, but she knew it well at this point. She’d felt it plenty of times while stuck fighting for her life in Grogar’s arena. She didn’t fight it, instead embracing this part of herself, this part that was essential to being a Hollow. Letting the lust for the hunt wash over her, Adagio let her voice ring out in a haunting song, trumpeting the hunt, and to her surprise her voice was joined by whooping calls from her allies, even the huge saurian Adjuchas, as they all rushed after the fleeing Gillians.

Slow and lumbering in their size the Gillians weren’t able to flee far, and in moments Adagio found herself tearing into the soft folds of dark fabric and flesh along the body of one Gillian. Its howl of pain just lit her blood further on fire, making her savage the Hollow even more as she slashed and bit, feeling a unearthly satisfaction at the potent taste of blood filling her mouth.

Ember was no less rabid, hacking with her blade with exulting laughter exploding from her mouth as she literally danced through the Gillians while carving great chunks from them. The half-Arrancar was right behind her, cackling wildly as he smashed one Gillian’s face hard enough to send it stumbling into another of its kin, then proceeded to Cero blast both at once with a barely controlled beam.

Gaw got the last kill, slashing through several other Gillians like a monolithic, living cuisinart before leaping onto the back of the last fleeing Gillian. Roaring with such volume that the walls of the deep cavern valley shook with it, Gaw grasped with heavily muscled claws to wrap around the final Gillian’s upper jaw, and with what looked to Adagio to be unusually distinct pleasure the dinosaur Hollow tore the top of the Gillian’s head backwards, ripping it clean off in a shower of gore.

With the last Gillian slain Adagio slowly floated to the ground, breathing heavily, her alabaster scales covered in slick blood. Ember landed next to her, stretching her arms and smiling brightly, like a child who’d just gotten off a roller coaster and couldn’t wait to go again.

“Well hell, this doesn’t exactly get us any closer to evolving your scaly butt, but it sure was fun! Hah, I forgot how much of a blast it can be to cut loose on some Gillians. Man, we trashed those losers.”

Adagio, licking blood off of one of her talons, said, “It was adequately exhilarating, but I didn’t jump into the fight for that.”

“Yeah, and why did we jump into that fight anyway?” asked Ember, eyeing the other two Hollows.

The half-Arrancar was busy jumping up and down, shouting at Gaw as the humongous Adjuchas bent over one of her kills and started to gorge herself on the dead Gillian’s flesh.

“Hey Gaw, dammit, save some for me! Don’t hog it all. Unlike you I actually need the juicy bits to not die! Hey, you listening to me you big feather head!?”

In response Gaw, without even looking at the bouncy half-Arrancar, just lifted a hind leg and proceeded to step on him. This didn’t seem to actually harm him much, despite Gaw’s ludicrous size relative to him. It just trapped him underneath her huge talons as he struggled and whined. “Whaaaat!? Seriously!? This isn’t fair at all! I’m starting to think you don’t respect me.”

Gaw barked a coughing call of complete agreement and went back to eating.

Adagio glanced at Ember, “Would you believe me if I said I did it to make friends?”

To this Ember made a sour face, pointing, “With them? Uh, no offense, but one of them looks like a crazy bum, and the other is a anti-social giant dinosaur. They don’t exactly strike me as ‘friend’ material.”

Adagio smiled thinly, placing a talon around Ember’s shoulder, “Just... try to not look at what is, and try to look at what could be.”

“Riiiiiight. Well, this is your show. Lead the way. Just try to remember we’re here to turn you into an Arrancar, and that means we need to get into a fight that pushes you to the brink of death. Allies aren’t really conducive to that goal.”

“Depends on the fight.” Adagio said, the proceeded to float forward towards the feeding Gaw and the half-Arrancar who only just then was managing to extract himself from underneath his colossal companion’s foot.

“Geez.” he grumbled, dusting himself off, “You try to be a nice guy and help a dino-gal out and what do you get in return? Nothing but attitude.” He glanced up at Adagio’s approach and straightened himself, hands on his hips. “So, uh... thanks for the help? Not that we needed it. Me and Gaw had that totally under control, right Gaw?”

He lightly and playfully punched Gaw’s foot, to which she turned her massive skull masked face away from her bloody kill to glare at him and issue forth a rumbling warning growl that shook the air. The half-Arrancar held up a hand. “Hey, you got to kill things, so you got no reason to be all grumpy. Go back to hogging all the food.”

Gaw snorted and proceeded to do just that while Adagio looked on with a quirked eyebrow. It was clear the half-Arrancar didn’t recognize her from their brief encounter back in the world of the living. Not surprising given they didn’t exactly exchange much, or any, of a conversation back then. His focus had been entirely on Sunset, and Adagio had only been in the way. It stood to reason he wouldn’t recognize who she was now, especially considering she'd been a floating plush doll back then. Even if her present form as a Hollow bore a resemblance to her natural siren form, as did her plush doll body, the two were different enough that one would have to be pretty sharp to make that connection.

That was well enough for now. Adagio didn’t bear any grudge over that event anyway, and it had nothing to do with her current plans. Putting on a welcoming smile, she dipped her head in greeting.

“Perhaps you and your... terse companion did have that situation well in hand, but I couldn’t pass up the chance at a good fight. You see my friend and I are here seeking to strengthen ourselves. From what I understand the Forest of Menos has quite a large number of foes to prey upon and become stronger. Gillians, and other Adjuchas.”

“That right?” the half-Arrancar bounced his sword over his shoulder, eyeing her up and down, “You trying to become a Vasto Lorde?”

Adagio gave Ember a questioning look, and the Arrancar girl walked up and joined them, "You mentioned Vasto Lordes before. I'm still unclear as to exactly what those are."

“He’s talking about the strongest class of Menos Hollow. Its what an Adjuchas would normally evolve into if they have the potential. Takes consuming thousands of other Hollows, and even then there’s only a small chance you have the potential to reach that next level. That’s why some Hollows side-step that process and try to become Arrancar instead.”

“Ah, I see.” Adagio said, then turned her attention back to the half-Arrancar, “I’m not here to hunt Hollows to become a Vasto Lorde. I’m looking to become an Arrancar.”

“For real? You know how to do that?” the half-Arrancar suddenly got an intense look on his face, leaning forward, eyes focused on Adagio. “Because if you haven’t noticed, I’m, uh, kind of stuck with this thing still on my face.”

He pointed at the shark-like mask covering his head, his voice taking on a frustrated and near manic tone. “I mean serious, what the hell, right!? So that old bastard makes me into this freaky half-baked, incomplete Arrancar, totally without my permission or anything. Then he sends me to go fight these crazy human girls with whacky super powers, and, like, I don’t get my ass kicked but, uh... one particular fight doesn’t go well. Two fights, if you count the one when I was just a regular old Hollow. Anyway, this pink haired chick uses weird mind powers on me and the next thing I know I’m here in the damned Forest of Menos, getting my butt chewed on by Gillians. Gaw saves me-”

Gaw proceeded to snort between bites of her meal, and Adagio could have sworn that through some bizarre means of body language the giant dinosaur Hollow managed to say in no uncertain terms ’by no intention of my own’. Huh. Weird.

“-by ripping those bastards a new one. In thanks I’ve been hanging out with her ever since and we’ve been best buds. Right bestie!?”

A tail slap and one bruised up half-Arrancar later he continued his tirade/story, bleeding from the forehead.

“So anyway, point is, I got to eat Gillians like every day otherwise my messed up, unstable spirit energy will self-destruct. Not sure why, but chowing down on these Gillain dudes holds the explodey death at bay. Problem is I can’t keep this up forever. I need to finish evolving. I got to become an Arrancar too.”

Bingo. Adagio thought, hiding her deep satisfaction with a frown of sympathetic concern. “That’s just terrible. And to think, we both have such unfortunate circumstances. You see, I wish to become an Arrancar so I can have the strength to break free from the servitude I’m forced to suffer at the filthy hands of the Eight Espada, Grogar.”

“That asshole!? He’s the one who’s screwy experiments made me this way!”

I figured that much out already. Adagio thought while she said with mock surprise, “Truly? Then we have an enemy in common, for I hardly consider that disgusting goat an ally. As soon as I have the power I intend to depose and take vengeance upon that odious man. Perhaps... we should make common cause with each other?”

The half-Arrancar was looking up with a bewildered expression as he silently mouthed a word over and over again. It took Adagio a second to realize he was mouthing the word ‘odious’, with clear incomprehension as to the word’s meaning. Trying, and failing, to head an utterly exasperated look, Adagio snapped, “Look do you want help or not!?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, totally. Wait, so you’ll show me and Gaw how to become Arrancar?”

At the mention of her name in this conversation Gaw turned her blood stained face towards them, sharp yellow eyes watching them hawkishly. She let out a quizzical barking call and the half-Arrancar waved a hand her way.

“What? It’ll be awesome Gaw! Arrancar are way stronger and faster than that current form you’ve got. We’d be like, apex predator badasses. Well, relatively speaking. Still lots of fish higher on the food chain, but it’d be a step up from being stuck down here hunting Gillians all day.”

A disdainful snort escaped Gaw’s snout and the half-Arrancar shrugged at Adagio apologetically, “She’s not impressed. Says she likes it down here.”

“How can you even tell what she’s saying?” asked Ember, “All I’m getting from her is ‘growl snort growl’. Can’t she talk?”

“What do you mean? She’s a total chatterbox. I can barely get her to shut up.”

Adagio looked at him with deadpan eyes, “Uh-huh. So, we know her name, which I can only assume you gave her. What about you? I’m Adagio, and this is Ember. What should we call you?”

With a deep grin he pointed a thumb at himself, “Name’s Di. Di Roy.”

Ember looked at him flatly, “Unique name. Where’d you come up with that?”

“It’s like ‘destroy’, but you know, more name-ish.” Di Roy said, then blinked as both Adagio and Ember stared at him. Even Gaw glanced away, nearly looking embarrassed to be associated with him. Di Roy coughed, stuffing one hand in his pocket and mumbling. “I thought it sounded cool.”

“It's a... fine name.” Adagio said, and looked up at the towering Gaw. “Now, I understand if perhaps you think you have power enough for a life of hunting Hollows in this... dreary place. However consider this. You are a predator, are you not? One who lives to hunt?”

Gaw turned her head slightly towards Adagio, indicating this strange beast of a Hollow was paying attention, at least for the moment. It encouraged Adagio to continue. “Well, I can speak from personal experience that there are Hollows out there vastly more powerful than any of us here. Than all of us combined. They have their own agendas and care nothing for those they might crush underfoot in pursuing those agendas.”

Gaw snorted and tilted her chin up, at once seeming to say ’So what do I care?’ and, ’I’ll kill any who invade my territory!’ at the same time through simple fierce expression and aggressive stance. Adagio, taking a chance at a little body language of her own, floated up into Gaw’s face, getting eye to eye with the other Adjuchas-class Hollow.

“You should care because as powerful as you are, its not enough. Not to protect yourself or your ‘territory’ from any of those potent Hollows that could at any time decide to come down here and hunt you as prey. Do you want to spend your days stagnating in this hole until that inevitability? Until someone far stronger than you decides to hunt you down for mere sport?”

Adagio’s words seemed to strike a nerve inside the larger Hollow, Gaw’s lips pulling back in a deep snarl, a growl reverberating through the air. Her tail lashed about, smashing into the ground hard enough to splinter a web of cracks in the stone. The statement was clear enough, ’I am no prey!’

Adagio smiled thinly, “If that is true, then join with us. You and Di Roy both. Ember knows the method to becoming an Arrancar, and if we succeed we will all be more powerful than we are now! I will not stagnate in this dead realm. I will thrive, and if you wish, the two of you can thrive with me, and never have reason to fear being made prey ever again.”

A deep rumble of contemplative growling shook Gaw’s throat, her maw opening as she licked her lips clean of blood from the feasted upon Gillians. Then with a curious snort the beast turned and plodded back to her kill, resuming eating. Di Roy chuckled, sheathing his sword.

“That’s about as positive a response I’ve seen her give to anything that didn’t directly involve evisceration, and I think that’s only because there’s the promise of future violence with this plan of yours. Speaking of which, if we join up do I get first crack at kicking Grogar straight in his danglies? Because I owe that dude some serious crotch kicking.”

Adagio chimed out a laugh, “I’m certain that can be arranged. As long as you understand that I decide when and where we strike. Grogar remains powerful, and we need to plan this carefully.”

“Hey say no more, I’m the very definition of careful. That’s why they call me Di ‘Careful’ Roy!”

Gaw snorted again, barely lifting her head from her meal, and Di Roy shouted, “Everybody, Gaw! Everybody calls me that! And what did I say about hogging all the food! I killed some of these walking snack buffets too!”

With that Di Roy stomped off to start cutting choice pieces from one of the other dead Gillians, leaving Adagio and Ember to stand there looking on in general bemusement. Ember especially looked less than convinced that the situation was in any way a positive one, looking at Adagio with a sidelong glance of concern.

“Are you sure these two will be an asset?”

“Absolutely.” Adagio said, then shrugged, “Mostly. The large one at least appears capable. Not so sure about Di Roy, but even his type can have their uses. Regardless, I was hardly going to pass up an opportunity to acquire some more allies.”

Ember narrowed her eyes in dawning suspicion. “You... you just want to ride a dinosaur into battle, don’t you?”

“...It may be a thought that occured to me.” Adagio admitted, coughing and looking away with embarrassment coloring her cheeks. “What? I can’t both seek to be powerful and stylish? If one is to dream, dream big.”

----------

“So allow me a moment to confirm precisely what you are telling me, Captain Hurricane.” said Platinum as she paced in front of the man with each step seeming to be harder and sharper than the last. “You not only failed to eliminate a single invading Ryoka, but you also scattered them across the Seireitei without any means of determining exactly where they went? Oh, and to add a delicious cherry atop this sundae of competence, you also allowed the majority of the rebel Soul Reapers escape into the sewer system, only managing to apprehend a handful of stragglers, not one of which was even a seated officer? Do I have this understanding, or perhaps you’d like to amend something so I’m not encountering a sad joke?”

Sitting on the log of a fallen tree, Hurricane stretched his limbs and checked his wounds, only providing Captain Platinum with a level look of mild irritation. “You’re in a melodramatic mood, aren’t you? The rebels are in hiding, and the Ryoka battered and separated. I got a good fight out of it, so I can’t complain.”

“Can’t complain? Can’t complain!?” Platinum looked ready ready to draw her Zanpaktou then and there, only keeping control with an icy breath and forcing her face to stoic, frozen calm. “Soul Society remains at risk, and one of our Captains sits wounded and defeated.”

Hurricane’s eyes stormed darkly, his mouth turning into a grimace like a thunderhead. “I was not defeated. Be mindful of your words, Captain Platinum. Otherwise I might have to show you what defeat feels like.”

A foot slamming into the ground nearby got both of their attentions, making the two quarreling Captains look towards the burly mountain of muscles and hair that was Captain Thunderhooves. The large, broad shouldered Captain of the Seventh Division looked with hard eyes at his comrades and spoke in a thick baritone.

“This bickering is a waste of effort. Platinum is correct that the Seireitei remains at risk from these invaders and the rebels aiding them. We cannot allow this threat to our sacred land to continue a single breath longer than necessary. We must fully mobilize to search out the Ryoka and capture them. I suggest less finger pointing from both of you.”

Captain Platinum stared at Thunderhooves with flinty eyes, but slowly nodded, “You are right, of course. I allowed my emotions to get away from me for a moment. Captain Hurricane, I respectfully apologize for questioning your... competence. Now, we should divide our forces to sweep in each cardinal direction, searching building by building, street by street.”

“Why?” asked Sweet Cider, who’d been standing off to the side while leaning her back against one of the only remaining intact trees nearby, her arms folded over her chest. “We already known dang well where them Ryoka girls’r headin’. They’re goin’ after Captains Celestia and Luna, which means they’ll be makin’ a bee-line straight fer the Repentance Cells.”

“True, but we don’t know where Hurricane’s winds tossed them.” replied Platinum cooly, “They could be anywhere, even if they are heading for the same general area. Spreading a wide net is the only way to maximize our chances of catching them.”

“Also makes us more vulnerable.” said Sweet Cider, “Why not just turtle up ‘round headquarters? Them girls would never get past us if every Captain an’ their divisions fortified the main headquarters.”

“And let them wander wherever they wished all over the Seireitei?” Platinum asked in a shocked tone, “Certainly you must be jesting! Who knows what damage they might inflict while we waited idle in headquarters. Besides the Captain Commander’s orders were to apprehend the Ryoka as quickly as possible, which we can hardly do while waiting for them to come to us.”

Sweet Cider spat to the side, “Right. Well, if that’s the tune yer gonna yarble, then I ain’t gonna waste time arguin’ with ya.” She ceased leaning against the tree and turned to where her Lieutenant, Silverstar, was waiting nearby. “Lieutenant, take our forces back to the barracks and then start a search from there to the South Gate.”

“Yes Captain. What’ll ya be doing, if you don’t mind my askin’?”

A glint sparked in Sweet Cider’s eyes, “I’m goin’ huntin’ on my own. No offense, but the rest o’ ya’ll would just get in the way.”

“Now wait just a second!” said Platinum, taking several swift steps towards Sweet Cider, “You can’t just go off on your own like that!”

Sweet Cider’s eyes flicked towards Platinum with a look as pointed as a knife to the gut, and far less subtle in its dislike. “Thinkin’ I can. Thinkin’ if anyone wanted ta try stopin’ me, they’re welcome ta make that mistake.”

Platinum met Sweet Cider’s look with an equally stubborn and willful gaze, her voice steady. “You’re more injured than Captain Hurricane is. Is it wise to pursue the Ryoka by yourself, without any backup? Did you not just point out that spreading out makes us vulnerable?”

“It makes you vulnerable. I’ll be just dang dandy. These little mosquito bites ain’t slowin’ me down none, an’ I got business ta finish with that Ditzy Doo character. An’ other matters ta settle with another of them girls. Ain’t nothin’ I need help with, so you lot do whatever searchin’ ya want, but...” Sweet’ Cider’s spiritual energy spiked harshly, like a blanket of thorns radiating off of her as her eyes near glowed solid green. “Stay outta my way.”

With that Sweet Cider used Flash Step with such speed and force it created a small crater in the ground as she went, trailing dirt into the air. Platinum watched her go with a frustrated sigh.

“How she ever became a Captain is beyond me...”

“We should coordinate our search efforts with the other Captains.” said Hurricane, glancing in the direction Sweet Cider went. “We know the Ryoka are strong enough to match one of us, even with the use of Shikai. That means they can likely defeat any other officer from Lieutenant grade and lower.”

“Speak for yourself, no offense Captain.” said Lieutenant Fancy Pants, who stood near his own Captain, watching the proceedings silently up until now. “I have confidence many Lieutenants will prove adequate opponents for these young ladies. I certainly have no intention of dishonoring my division by losing so easily to them.”

Hurricane’s own spirit energy flared with heated anger, his voice matching. “Are you suggesting Lieutenant Posey dishonored me by losing!?”

Fancy Pants, keeping his cool, shook his head in a clipped manner. “Not at all. From what I understand your Lieutenant is merely missing. It is not confirmed that she has lost any battles, as of yet. With no body to be found on the battlefield it can be assumed she may be captured, perhaps, but until we know more I’m implying nothing. In all ways Lieutenant Posey is a credit to your division and her bloodline, Captain Hurricane.”

Hurricane stewed like a storm cloud, growling at the ground. “Posey serves me as well as her mother did. I’ll not hear her name besmirched, and if I hear such talk from you or anyone else you’ll envy those traitors in the Repentance Cells.”

Fancy Pants saluted in acknowledgment, then turned to his own Captain. “Captain Platinum, shall I send word to the other Captains of what has transpired here so the search may be coordinated.”

“Yes. Don’t bother with Captain Starswirl. I’d be surprised if we could get him out of his laboratory. As for the rest, we can search the districts closest to our division barracks and widen our search pattern from there.”

“If I may make a suggestion, Captain?” Fancy Pants asked, and at Platinums nod he went on, “If Hurricane has wounded some of those young ladies as badly as he has said, then one logical place for them to make for may be the Fourth Division’s barracks, with its extensive medical section. Given several rebel Soul Reapers are with them it stands to reason they would be privy to knowing where the Fourth Division is and its role in the Gotei 13. Might I then suggest at least one Captain, and perhaps an accompanying Lieutenant, make for the Fourth Division immediate. Even with Captain Zecora there, the Fourth Division is not suited for combat and may face trouble in dealing with the Ryoka alone.”

A quick, satisfied smile lit up Platinum’s face. “An excellent point Lieutenant. I think we shall do precisely that. Good thinking.”

“Very well.” rumbled Thunderhooves, “Then I shall concentrate my search to the west, and cover the main avenue towards the main headquarters. I’ll leave other areas to the rest of the Captains.”

“Assuming they even get off their asses to help.” muttered Hurricane, standing and cracking his neck. “I’m taking Sweet Cider’s advice and concentrating the Eleventh Division around the Repentance Cells. Those girls will show up there eventually, one way or another. And if they don’t, well, I’m sure Celestia and Luna will eventually try to pull some trick. Celestia is far too crafty for her own good.”

To that Platinum could only give a shallow laugh, “That, at least, is one statement in which you will find no argument from me.”

Author's Note:

Adagio stepping up her plans for world domination. Or at least Hecuo Mundo domination. At this point she'd probably just be happy to get rid of old man Grogar. So her training in the Forest of Menos begins! Can't let the other main protagonists fall too far behind Sunset, right? Hmm, I think there's another Arrancar Encyclopedia about the Forest of Menos too:

Ah, so Gillians can be trained like giant, creepy puppy-dogs. Good to know, right Adagio?

Now before I wrap this up I'd like to make special mention of the character Gaw. She's something of a guest and huge nod to another fic-verse that actually is part of the inspiration that kicked me in the pants to start writing Friendship Souls... wow, almost exactly a year ago? Time flies. Anyway I'm speaking of The Bridge: A Godzilla-MLP Crossover, by a fine fellow named Tarbtano. Now as you guys can probably guess I'm a big crossover junkie. I'm also a kaiju fan. So that story is pure yes for me. In reading it there's a part of the story that crosses over into the Equestria Girls world as well. It was there that my brain started putting together the idea of doing Friendships Souls, which while doing its own thing being a Bleach crossover, and one that's more a fusion fic in nature, the idea was encouraged into growing by reading Tarbtano's fic. So Gaw is a nod and a connection to that. She's an obscure as heck kaiju actually tied to King Kong lore, which is awesome. Now, funny thing, The Bridge is part of a larger spread of fics collectively known as the Amalgam'verse. I may or may not be considering a gaiden-style side-fic at some point between Friendship Souls and the Amalgam'verse, but such plans are still a ways off if they do come to fruition, and I do want to assure any of my readers that Friendship Souls will remain its own fic and that any side-fics of the future will be independently enjoyable without making them required reading to keep enjoying Friendship Souls.

That all said, crossover lovers out there go check out The Bridge if you like. It's definitely worth a look in my opinion.

Alright, so that all said, thank you everyone for reading along, and as always any comments, questions, and critiques are highly appreciated! 'Till next time.

Comments

[Leo Archon]

Hm. I'll attribute Ember's lack of knowledge about Arrancar to her unique circumstances.

Arrancar are not formed from having some desperate desire to win. All it takes is the voluntary removal of their mask. If the mask is broken from an outside force, then yes, the Hollow is destroyed (or purified, in the case of Shinigami Zanpakuto). But if the Hollow itself breaks the mask voluntarily, that converts them into an Arrancar right away.

Mind you, it's not a perfect process. In canon, the only way to guarantee being a fully human Arrancar is to be a Vasto Lorde prior to the conversion. For Adjuchas and Gillians, it's a crapshoot if they get a fully human form. That is, until Aizen came along with the Hogyoku and started messing with Arrancar biology.

Also, more G1 appearances! There are very few fics out there on Fimfiction that mention Hydia, let alone feature her.

[stephen51991]

s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/d0/e8/45/d0e845d07b75a368e8b04f3699aee828.jpg

[Marauder15]

Nicely done.

[the other sans]

grumbled as he took his own thrown on Hydia’s side
I’m Adjuchas-class and not particular large
plates across it’s back
many of them firing point-blank Cero blasts into the Adjuchas’
and the tip of her tail Each spike pierced right
and try to look at what could be]
Gaw snorted and proceeded to do just
can likely defeat any other officer from Lieutenant grade on down

1. Throne.
2. Particularly.
3. Its.
4. Extra apostrophe.
5. Forgot your fullstop.
6. Extra... I forgot what bracket this is. But a bracket nonetheless.
7. Extra spacing here.
8. Or.

Now we see the Hollow side of the aftermath. I wonder if Grogar has too much self confidence in his plans thinking Adagio thinks just becoming an Arrancar is going to defeat him. Sadly he either seems to be sorely mistaken thinking he can counter her power easily since he -more or less- 'mapped out' Adagio's gems reiatsu or maybe he thinks he has his own powerful forces ready to fight for him. He'd be half right on the latter but if there's a chance to gang up on him well... everyone can guess where I'm going with that.

Y'know, I don't recall the name Di Roy being mentioned before when he first fought the girls and even less when I kept thinking it was some other experimental Arrancar that was sent back instead. Nice cameo from the show by the way and perhaps maybe this time we'll see more of what he's capable of like how you did with Grand Fisher.

Now for the Soul Society... does Hurricane remember fully what the girls look like or are they going to be able to pull off the same thing the show did by having them slap on robes and making them think they're Soul Reapers? My guess is most likely not considering only Sunset can pass off as one if none grilled her too much but on the other hand she'd with Ditzy training for Bankai immediately so that most likely won't happen.

Pinkie if I recall was separated from all by herself, AJ and Fluttershy was with Rainbow and Rarity is with Sunset and Ditzy. Hmm... not so far spread out as I thought but definitely easier than going all one one one. Again I'd like to quote on how Pinkie might survive from my previous comment, by somehow stumbling across an all-you-can-eat buffet of food. Actual food and not Soul Reapers.

[Thought Prism]

Welp, there goes my theory. See, I was thinking that Chrysalis was an ally of Starlight's and had replaced Zecora under her orders to sow dissent among Soul Society as part of a master plan to usurp control over all the realms, assuming Starlight is indeed the Aizen equivalent. This would explain Zecora's confirmation of Celestia and Luna's guilt.

[Weirdo For Life]

Things are starting to get hectic.

Adagio is working towards becoming an Arrancar and building up her own army. Di Roy is an interesting inclusion along the same vein as Grand Fisher. Both being characters from the anime that were easily disposed of ( Di Roy by Rukia and Grand Fisher by Isshin). I'm interested in what his powers and personalilty going on will be.

In the Soul Society we have multiple stories going on. The girls are split in groups of Sunset, Rarity and Derpy; Applejack, Flutters and Rainbow Dash and Pinky by herself. All we know is Sunset is now going to train for bankai. Then we have the Captains working to find the girls, the group of lieutenants trying to figure out what's going on and Celestia and Luna planning on of their escapes.

In the Quincy side we have Twilight trying to control her powers with Sombra's help. Interesting in the fact it took the help of the girls for her to gain control but now their not here.

Finally we have Sonata and Aria going to their world to find any magic that could help Adagio with Princess Twilight being there to help.

Not to mention we still have the wild cards of Starlight, Discord and I have a feeling we are going to see Rainbow's mom soon.

Finally I have a prediction that the Forth Espada is going to be Applejack's dad. I've got a feeling there and hope it's true.

[Thought Prism]

Also, now I'm wondering who this mysterious Fourth Espada of yours is. It can't be somebody obvious, like Mane-iac or Ahuizotl, otherwise there would be no point to keeping us in suspense like this. My guess is that it's either Flurry Heart from the future or actually Ulquiorra, somehow.

8083285
Ok, yeah, that makes much more sense than my ideas.

[p61blkwidow]

another fantastic chapter! can not wait for the girls own individual adventure! i know they will be up to each and every task! and heres hoping in the near future sonata(because she is one of my favorites)showsv adigiohow powerful she has become learning magic from twilight,and saves her and her soul! well done to you on this fine crafted story!

[Riku006]

Riptors? Reptars?

I see what you did there.
I'll be honest; I was so hyped to see Chrysalis as the second Arrancar. I had a feeling she'd be one of them, but being that high sits really well with me.
Also, can't wait to se Smooze fight. That should be fun.

[Misdirection01]

Great chapter!

[Dark Feather]

Behind this man was Squirk, sneering in his red, glowering face as he spat at the man ahead of him. “Move faster, Smooze! I want this damn meeting over with!”

[shy sad jaded shard]

8083303
My money is on Applejacks dad

[shy sad jaded shard]

Was that a Dresden files reference I spotted there?

[ElCazadorDeHistorias]

Adagio is starting to upgrade her plan. Nice.

[RanmaChaos]

Great chapter.

So Tirek is the number 1 huh? Wierd, I was sure he was going to be like Aizen, an outsider controlling the Hollows with an unstoppable power.

[DarthSonic66]

Calling it now, "Gaw" is Human Sunset.

[DarthSonic66]

8086983
Chances are that Starlight is at the reigns in the shadows all Aizen like.

[Dyroxium]

So I made an account just to tell you how much I enjoy your story. It's revived the love I had for Bleach after starting to grow tired of it after the Aizen arcs. You've integrated all the MLP characters into the Bleach lore without losing their characters, something I applaud you for. Please keep up the good work!

Though I was wondering if after this arc, we're potentially going to see one that has more to do with the Equestria side of the crossover as well?

[Godzilla2020]

Phew finally finished reading and I all I gotta say is pretty fun read. Been awhile since I've watched Bleach so I've clearly got some bingeing to do later to understand everything again. Also really can't wait to see what happens with AJ and SC so far their my favorites right now.

Keep it up

[thatguyvex]

8083128
I'll freely admit that I'm tweaking aspects of Bleach canon to expand upon concepts that I don't really think Kubo explored fully. This includes the idea that the transformation from a regular Hollow into an Arrancar might be a bit more involving than just tearing the mask off by itself. To be fair, Kubo rarely ever went into detail about these kind of things and while we know removing the mask is key for a Hollow becoming an Arrancar, we don't really have anything in the anime or manga that confirms that's the only thing involved. Aizen kind of comes in with the Hogyoku to make Arrancar on his own and bypass the mask issue, so it never gets explored more than a passing mention. A lot of stuff in Bleach is like that, so don't be surprised if you see me expanding on certain ideas with my own twists and tweaks.

8102899
Without spoiling anything all I'll say is that I do intend to have Equestria play more of a role in the story in the future, and that's part of why Aria and Sonata were sent there.

[thatguyvex]

8110174
I'll respectfully agree to disagree with you on this, but appreciate the honest input.

[AdverseFlower95]

Hey, I found another continuity error. In this chapter it says that the crazy shark half-Arrancar Di Roy wouldn't have recognized Adagio because she didn't look human.

Gaw snorted and proceeded to do just that while Adagio looked on with a quirked eyebrow. It was clear the half-Arrancar didn’t recognize her from their brief encounter back in the world of the living. Not surprising given they didn’t exactly exchange much, or any, of a conversation back then. His focus had been entirely on Sunset, and Adagio had only been in the way. It stood to reason he wouldn’t recognize who she was now, especially considering she no longer looked remotely human.

But at the end of Chapter 12 and the beginning of 13 when this meeting took place, she was in that plush toy that looked like her old siren self.

There was only a few seconds hesitation before Adagio held out a little toy flipper and shook Sunset’s hand, though she pulled it back fairly fast, face a weird twist of reserved hope and a need to still look standoffish, “We’ll see. This... doesn’t make us friends. I'm just taking your advice, that's all. Don't expect me to be all buddy-buddy with you now, got it?”

Sunset just smiled, laughing, “Right, of course not.”

“Wow, okay, this is just way too sugarcoated for me,” said a sudden masculine voice from above, “I was trying to be polite and let you guys finish your little heart to heart, but I don’t think I can take this anymore.”

Sunset spun around, looking up to see a man standing in the sky. Or what looked like a man, if not for the hole of a Hollow through his chest and a Hollow’s bone mask covering most of his face. The mask was shaped like that of a shark’s face, much like the description she’d heard form Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash of the Hollow they’d fought. Yet this mask covered a human sized head, with a long, spiked mane of white hair, and within the rim of shark teeth of the mask’s open mouth she could make out a shadowy, almost human face, with similarly human eyes. He had arms, legs, and a body like that of a man, though much of his arms and chest were covered by grayish shark skin. He wore baggy white pants, and black shoes, but nothing else. Sunset quickly noticed the short, but broad bladed and curved sword sheathed through a sash at his waist.

And I'm pretty sure they never met before that. I just thought I should point this out.
On a side note, becoming a Vasto Lorde might be a viable route for Adagio to take. In an earlier chapter Grogar did say that her gem allows her to gain power through eating much more efficiently than a normal hollow. So if Adagio is patient she can become a Lorde and then an Arrancar. If she did that I would imagine that she would have the power level of a mid-tier Espada from the start.

[thatguyvex]

8253266
Hmm, I see what you mean. I can make a few adjustments.

[Forthwith]

Ember narrowed her eyes in dawning suspicion. “You... you just want to ride a dinosaur into battle, don’t you?”

Who wouldn't? It's a mighty steed.

[Aemon Targaryen]

“It’s like ‘destroy’, but you know, more name-ish.” Di Roy said, then blinked as both Adagio and Ember stared at him. Even Gaw glanced away, nearly looking embarrassed to be associated with him. Di Roy coughed, stuffing one hand in his pocket and mumbling. “I thought it sounded cool.”

I meant, if you really want to talk about names, most of the names of MLP are far worse then Di Roy.

Because when there is names like Pinkie, Cheese sandwich (i am sure than some women really bad at flirting had joked about how they wanted to eat him) and Shining Armor, i feel then those moments of "wait, this is your name" have a pot/kettle effect.

Even this kind of moment for Derpy was far fetched (although yes, this is one of the worse, i was surprised to learn what this word meant).

[Aemon Targaryen]

“Yes, we measure things in ‘shit tons’ which are smaller than a ‘fuck ton’ but more than an ‘ass ton’. We call it the ‘Hollow Metric’. And I’d says there’s at least one metric shit ton of Gillians up ahead. At least forty, give or take. Also feels like our mysterious Adjuchas and not-Arrancar are there too, having a real party.”

So, is she messing with Adagio or...

And which Espada came up with that ? Torch ? Or Chrysalis ? I feel like both would be ones to like this way of doing.

[thatguyvex]

11094863
Oh she's very much messing with Adagio, although it's a system that probably actually has some use among Torch's horde, at least.