Duel in the White Sands

As the black sky was brightened by the bleach-white crescent moon above, a masked man walked through the desert world of, his thoughts having been left behind in , where his partner was residing. While he walked, he felt as if something was amiss, although he dismissed it instantly, going back to his favorite past-time: daydreaming...

Walking through the desert of Hueco Mundo, the man in the black cloak started to ponder, "it’s been two days since I last saw Ashido in the forest of menos, hope he is doing alright. He really helped me out by healing the injuries I sustained while fighting the Espada".

"I am not sure if leaving him behind was the right thing to do, but once I check the situation at Las Noches, I'ill head back to the Menos Forest and ask him if he wants to go back to the human world with me. I can’t believe he survived this long in this place, even with the large number of Hollow that inhabits this world".

"According to Ashido, It takes about three days to reach Las Noches, so I should be there by the end of the day, now that I think about it the palace looks much bigger than it did before".

He was almost close to his destination, but as he continued to walk through the desert, he felt a slight disturbance in the air. What could it be?

Without any sign, the masked man appeared behind the large shinigami, leaning on his back. "Well, hi there." the masked-marauder said, his voice full of glee. "Who are you, if I may ask?"

"Oi Oi, isn’t it rude to ask someone their name before introducing yourself first", the man said with a hint of annoyance in his tone.

"Would you mind getting off my back, I don’t like people using it as their personal resting space". "What a strange looking arrancar", the man thought to himself upon looking at the masked stranger.

As the arrancar stopped leaning on the rather old-looking shinigami. "My apologies, sir. My name is Tsukai no Yumeuranai, the former Primera Espada. But don't worry, I'm not associated with any arrancar anymore. What is your name?" Tsukai asked, slightly upset that he couldn't lean on the man's back anymore.

"Not another Espada, I just dealt with once not too long ago, and now I standing right in front of the former Primera Espada", Saigo thought to himself, as the strange looking arrancar introduced himself.

"From all the information I’ve gathered, the Primera is said to be the strongest of all the Espada, even if he is the former, he should still have a significant amount of power".

"Man what a hassle to run into a guy like this in the middle of the desert, best not to make any sudden moves, for now let’s see how this plays out", as Saigo thought before introducing himself to the arrancar.

"My name is Saigo Murakami, and as you can see I am a shinigami, although like yourself I am no longer associated with any organization, that includes the Gotei 13".

Tsukai looked at his adversary with a watchful eye, although it was impossible to tell since his entire face was covered. "That's good to know." he said, quite bored of their idle conversation already.

"Well if that is all, I’ll be taking my leave now, I don’t have time for idle chit-chat", said Saigo with his objective for coming to Las Noches in mind.

Before Saigo could move anywhere, the arrancar reappeared in front of him, blade in hand. "Now, where are you off to so soon? Why don't we have a little spar? I've been completely bored the last few months, and you seem really strong. How 'bout it?" he asked, a little excitement in his voice.

"Bored..... Now that’s a surprise, Hueco Mundo is literary crawling with thousands of Hollows, maybe you should go and fight one of them, would make my job a lot easier. But then again seeing as how you were the former 1st Espada, there aren’t many here who could stand up to you and fight on equal grounds".

"Alright I’ll play with you for now", said Saigo while removing his cloak and revealing his face to the arrancar. "Let’s see how powerful a former Primera Espada really is", he thought to himself as he proceeded to draw out his Zanpakuto.

But Tsukai's zanpakutō, Ciervo, was already unsheathed and ready to pierce his new opponent on a moments notice. "I promise that this'll be a fight you won't ever forget." he said, a slight chuckle in his voice.

"Well then I hope you keep your word, as I am expecting a good fight from you", Saigo said, with his blade in front him. "If you’d like to begin, then please do so by all means".

Without so much as a gesture, the former Espada appeared above the middle-aged shinigami, Ciervo pointed directly at the base of Saigo's skull. As he appeared above his opponent, Tsukai quickly slammed down to the ground, hoping to have made any form of injury on Saigo.

The arrancar appeared right above his head and quickly slammed down to the ground, despite the speed of the attack, it went right past him. Saigo was able to keep up with the former Espada’s movements, and simply took four steps back in order to dodge the attack.

"Well now staring off with a powerful attack are we, and a fast one at that, I would have surely lost my head, if I didn't keep track of your movements".

Tsukai sighed. "Yes. Sadly, I'm not the fastest of the current or former Espada. However, I have that I deem more important than strength or speed. Do you?" he said as he got up on his feet after observing the little crater he had made in the dune they were standing on.

"It doesn’t matter what kind of powers you have, the only thing that is important for a warrior is his ability to adapt to his surroundings. I take in every little detail around me as possible and use that to my advantage", Saigo said.

Disregarding his adversary's statement completely, the masked marauder appeared behind Saigo, stabbing at the man in hopes of piercing him between his lungs and diaphragm. "You seem to have let your guard down, my good sir." Tsukai said with a slight snicker.

"Like I said before I never let my guard down", Saigo quickly turned around and grabbed the blade before it could pierce him, with the blade in his hand, Saigo went on the offensive and punched the masked marauder in the face.

"Here this is yours", Saigo threw the blade that was in his hand back at the opponent. "You arrancar never cease to amaze me", Said with a sarcastic tone of voice.

"Amaze you? What was so amazing that I did, hm?" Tsukai asked, insulted by his opponents total lack of respect for him.

"It’s not what you did that was amazing, but it’s your actions, ever since I entered this world, I’ve been attacked by individuals claiming to be Espada, all your arrancar are the same, nothing drives you except for death and destruction, still retaining the same animalistic instincts you were born with".

"Even after gaining Human form, intelligence, and even a Zanpakuto nothing changes, all I am too you is a piece of meat to be devoured. It truly is a said existence", said Saigo with pity.

"That is not even the worse part".

Tsukai was not pleased.

"You, shinigami, have no room to talk. You don't know why we are the way we are, and most likely never will. Besides, I didn't attack you. I merely sensed your presence and thought it'd be fun to have a little spar. Don't go around assuming things, because when you assume, you make an ass of yourself." he said, glaring at Saigo intently.

"I never said you did, I was merely stating my concerns, but the fact of the matter is that you didn’t stop; you could have walked away, but in the end you gave into your instinct and that my friend is the sad reality".

"But let me ask you this, remember back to the moment when we first met, how did you introduce yourself to me?"

The masked arrancar simply ignored the arrogant man's question. "What do you mean, "you didn't stop?" he asked, curious as what his adversary was attempting to portray with his words.

"All right then I’ll explain it to you, your exact words were I am the former Primera Espada, isn’t that correct? I find it strange for an Arrancar who no longer serves the Espada to still use his former title, I may not know the circumstance behind you leaving the Espada but it seems your still cling onto your former position ad glory, which I find to be very pathetic", Said Saigo feeling pity for the masked arrancar

"Not only that, but you gave me a little insight to how powerful you might be, just simply by uttering those words".

"You don’t have any purpose, no master to serve, or a reason to fight for. Waiting for the next opponent to challenge, something to give your sad life a little bit of meaning".

"Well even if you could feel anything I doubt you would be able to do anything about it", Saigo said while hoping to see some sort of reaction from the arrancar.

As the man spoke, Tsukai merely sighed. "I may cling to my former title, but it's only because I was ostricised by my fellow Espada, which is why I felt the need to leave. If things were different, perhaps I would still be in that organization. But no matter, all hollows are beings born from negative emotions, which is why we choose to wait for the next battle. We have nothing better..." he said, his voice trailing off.

Saigo drew out a tuning fork like weapon from underneath his cape, he held it in front of him, as he listed to Tsukai’s reasons for leaving the Espada. "I see, so you left the Espada for that reason, no point staying with a group of people who don’t need you".

"I guess that was all I wanted to know, your response made things a bit clearer, I always try to get to know my opponent before I fight them, gives me the chance to understand their reasons for fighting. I have nothing personal against you Tsukai, but my experiences with your kind have not been pleasant".

Saigo tapped the blade of his tuning fork weapon against the hilt of his Zanpakutō, the resulting effect caused it produce a large blade of green energy from his original weapon. He was now ready to fight his opponent head on.

Tsukai observed the rather strange weapon for a few seconds before he realized what his opponent was holding. "A bakōttō..." the arrancar said, his voice sounding drained. "Oh, how I loathe your kind's weapons," he continued, his voice seeming even more salty towards his evermore dangerous adversary.

"I am impressed Tsukai, you were able to determine the nature of this weapon with just a simple glance, maybe there is more to you than meets eye", Saigo said, genuinely impressed by his opponents observational skills. "But yes this is a Bakkoto and not many of them exist today", he gently tapped on the blade, a small wave of spiritual energy emanated from the blade and made its way towards the masked arrancar.

"No need to be on guard, I don’t plan on attacking yet, I merely sent you a small amount of this weapons spiritual energy. Can you sense it Tsukai, I am sure you’ll be able to recognize the reiatsu", Saigo trying to reveal the true nature of this weapon to his opponent, before their battle begins.

"I'm not on guard. I find 'being on guard' is overly defensive, which can cause a fighter to falter." the arrancar remarked, slightly disturbed by the presence of the bakōttō. He had had bad experiences with said weapon, and did not wish to face another one...

"You see the weapon in my hand was created from the remains of various menos class hollows, and infused with the spiritual power of an espada level arancar".

"I know that wouldn’t bother you since hollows in particular don’t share any sort of bond with one another, but just to be fair I thought I should inform you what you’ll be going up against", Saigo could feel the Bakkoto’s presence.