The hero journey

Chapter #3 (p48-67) — Present day, Hueco Mundo

An endless sea of white sand. The home of hollows, Hueco Mundo. A young arrancar,

Nell Tu, runs across the sand near Las Noches, crying out for help. She’s followed by

Dondochakka BIRSTANNE, Pesche GUATICHE and their pet, Bawabawa. They love to

play eternal tag. Today, however, Nell isn’t the only one being chased. All four of them

of running for their lives. A group of more than a hundred arrancars is chasing them.

They say they want to play with Nell. But, considering the way they sometimes

released a Cero, Nell didn’t feel inclined to stop running. Most of them resembled

children, looking slightly younger than Nell. One of them was wearing something that

looked like white headphones. There were also some who didn’t look human, more

like small animals. Even so, they all had the number #102 somewhere on their bodies.

They were called Picarro, a name given to a group of child-type hollows. They didn’t

have individual names. They were considered one, lumped together under the number102 as Privaron Espada. Pesche curses their luck for running into them. Dondochakka

says the Picarro run free outside Las Noches now that Runuganga is gone. The Picarro

have the intellect of a child and are loyal to their desires. They originally ran free under

King Baraggan and there were briefly named Espada under the new king AIZEN, but

were demoted to Privaron Espada and sent to Tres Cifras’ Nest. Runuganga kept them

there with his endless sandstorms so they wouldn’t cause havoc in the World of the

Living. But now the Picarro were free to roam around. Whenever they found a partner

to play with, they’d play until their partner broke and could no longer move. They

were a nightmare to the weak.

— "I-Ichigo! Help us, Ichigo!" Nell met Ichigo KUROSAKI 18 months ago. Nell

remembers Ichigo being in trouble when faced with the Espada Nnoitora, but she

doesn’t remember what happened beyond that. She woke up to the sight of a scary

soul reaper and ran for her life. Afterwards she heard from the quincy and the humans

that Ichigo had already returned to the World of the Living. She had tried to go with

the humans in order to express her gratitude towards Ichigo, but she had caught the

eye of another scary soul reaper, Mayuri KUROSTUCHI, who wanted to use her as

sample. She managed to run away thanks the quincy and the others stopping Mayuri,

but when she returned, the quincy, humans and soul reaper were already gone. Until

now, in order to stave off loneliness, she hadn’t uttered Ichigo’s name even once.

Pesche and Dondochakka share a glance and decide to fight back ("Alright, brother.

Time for Plan B!"). They mix sand and Pesche’s Infinite Slime to create a quicksand-like

substance, but their plan backfires when Nell nearly drowns too. They save her, but

she’s passed out. The Picarro also free themselves.

Pesche and Dondochakka release Cero Sincrético and hit the Picarro. The attack takes

out roughly half of the Picarro. The other half release their own Cero’s in response.

Not just once, no, several seconds they each continue releasing Cero attacks, creating

a large crater in the sand. Nell and the others are nowhere to be found. Did they

vaporise? The Picarro think about who’ll they play with next. Rudbornn? Nah, he’s

been putting on airs ever since Baraggan and AIZEN left. What about Luppi? Nope,

he’s dead. Kukkapûro? Don’t know where he is. Gantenbainne? Don’t know either.

How about we go to the Firest of menos? They says there’s a strong red-haired soul

reaper there! Great! They head towards menos Forest, but then suddenly sense a

strange spiritual-pressure. There’s a lonely-looking woman with a mask covering the

right side of her face ("Who?", "I’ve seen her in Las Noches!") They head towards her

but she melts into the air and disappears. They try to find her using pesquisa and

notice there was another familiar spiritual-pressure besides hers,but they can’t

remember whose

The Picarro decide on their next game: the first one to find the masked woman wins.

They open the Garganta and, carrying their fallen fellow Picarro on their shoulders,

head into the Dangai. Silence returns to the desert. Then Dondochakka jumps out of

the sand. He had dug himself in the crater. He opens his mouth and throws up

Bawabawa, Nel, Pesche and a large amount of sand. He had swallowed the three and

dug himself deep in the sand by swallowing sand. They think this helped them to

evade being picked up by the Picarro’s pesquisa. They didn’t know the Picarro had

been distracted by someone else. Pesche decides to dub this Plan C. But then Pesche

frowns. He can sense the remainders of two familiar spiritual-pressure, but he tells

himself it’s impossible. Then, Nell wakes up, asking where the Picarro went. Pesche

can’t sense them anywhere and assumes they used the Garganta to go to the World of

the Living. Nell is worried for Ichigo, but Pesche reminds her of Ichigo’s strength, which

reassures Nell. She doesn’t know that Ichigo has lost his powers. He wouldn’t even be

able to see her now. But she also doesn’t know that there are others who can protect

the people, in place of Ichigo. A stubborn quincy. A soul reaper with an afro. And one

more person. A hero much more famous than the previous two. The hero’s name is —

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