Sano's sandy vacation

The word 'vacation' was probably a bit strong but Sano had definitely been sent on a journey far from home. Hueco Mundo was a place rife with danger and less than fond memories for Sano, and while he was thrilled to be getting his tan on this early in the year, he knew he was here on business. Bashira was a pariah, forced out of her position as the Captain Commander and forced to flee to this god-forsaken sand dune to live out her days. Or maybe she'd gone mad and died? Maybe she'd been eaten by some large Hollow? Maybe she'd decided to become a lizard and live in the sands eating Hollow shit and sand?

Sano couldn't be sure of the answer, all he seemed to be sure about was the uncertainty of his current situation. Thankfully, the trip to this point had been largely uneventful and Sano was on track heading towards Bashira's last known location. Maybe he'd find her, maybe he'd find her corpse, maybe he'd find evidence that she was a corpse. Whatever he was going to find, he just wanted to do it quickly and head back home...

All in all, today was a good day. The false sun in the sky of Los Noches was producing very real heat on his skin, so Lazarus was mostly just basking in the sun today. He hadn't been bothered, he hadn't been attacked, he'd been completely left alone to his own devices all day. It had been a pretty good day.

All of that changed in a flash. Lazarus jerked up, unaware of why he was even reacting this way, until he realized what he sensed. On the very edge of his abilities to sense at all, approaching, was a Shinigami of Bashira's level. Unlike Bashira, this one was malicious and angry, and was likely here to cause drama and start something.

Great... even before they'd finished gathering their soldiers and repairing their base, a Shinigami had found them and was approaching with most likely malicious intent. He sighed softly, flaring his reiatsu briefly to alert nearby Hollows of his presence, before heading off in the direction of the reiatsu he sensed.

How much did they know? How much information did they really have? One lone Shinigami wasn't going to be enough to stop all of them, even Bashira herself would be hard pressed to kill all of the Arrancar she'd already made, so this random Shinigami who seemed to be on her level wasn't a terror to Lazarus, but rather a mere annoyance. This was exactly what he needed... a punching bag to test his mettle against.

His sensory abilities were reknowned, and were currently flared to their maximum ability as Lazarus honed in on the Shinigami, learning as much as he could about the man before he arrived, being fully aware of all those in his surroundings. Lazarus was fully aware of the positions of every Arrancar within Los Noches, and at least of the stronger Hollows still scattered through a large part of Hueco Mundo, but he was by no means infallible. Activating True Sight while his eyes turned pure white, he waited for the moment he could see the approaching man, while continuing to walk in his direction.

M'runa had been sunbathing simply because Bashira had told them to remain on standby while she figured out the next step of the bigger plan. Being a cat-esque hollow this was totally fine with M'runa and everything was going good. Until she noticed Lazarus spike up his spiritual pressure and start moving off towards one of the outer walls of Las Noches itself. Did that mean they were about to have visitors? She couldn't sense anything over Lazarus at this distance, but whatever was going on had to be important if it made him take initiative over it. By the time she got to Lazarus' side even she could feel the strong energy of the oncoming shinigami. She would have tried to figure out if it was friends with Bashira, but considering that anyone that strong with that level of importance should be smart.. She figured the flashy entrance was an attempt at intimidation and thus was coming from an enemy.

Lazarus seemed willing to wait for the lone foe to arrive on their own pace, but M'runa was not as patient. Once she could see the shinigami in question she fired a single Bala at his feet to get him to stop, or pay attention, or begin attacking.. She didn't really care what he did in response. The man had had the worst luck running into Las Noches' gatekeepers, but as far as anyone could tell the guy wasn't worried about where he was. Just like Bashira hadn't been.

Sano's march was largely undeterred, even as the Bala landed haphazardly at his feet. It didn't particularly phase him, not even enough to make him stop really but he did at least figure it would be a good time to make himself known. "That wouldn't have stopped me if you'd aimed for my head Hollow. Free offer for you fine Hollows who, I'd assume, want to live to fight another day. Take me to Bashira and find a new patch of sand to occupy, and I'll let you both go. Any movement in my direction that can be interpreted as.. "aggressive" however.."

Sano smiled, cracking his neck slowly as his eyes darted along the floor for any signs of movement. "I wouldn't recommend finding out what comes after that."

Undeterred, Sano would continue his slow treck across the sand with his Zanpakuto drawn and at the ready.

Now to see if these Hollows would make a move..

Lazarus gripped the sheathe in his hand tightly, slowly but surely grabbing the handle of the katana it protected and drawing it out, showcasing the solid red blade as he did so. When the sword was fully revealed, he tossed the sheathe to the wayside and took a fighting stance. It was loose, as Lazarus was still new to fighting with a sword, but minor adjustments were being made constantly as he got into the groove of what he was capable of now.

He thought about telling M'runa to go in first while he stayed out of it, but he knew that Sano was too powerful for M'runa to handle by herself. Also, he frankly wasn't sure how M'runa would react to an outright order not issued by Bashira, and wasn't sure he wanted to find out right now. Instead, he steeled his resolve and fired a Cero Cornea from behind his mask at Sano's position, aimed for center mass. It was almost as fast as a bala, and required no extra movement on Lazarus' part to fire, but was also weaker than a normal cero to make up for the speed.

With the Cero Cornea fired, Lazarus would immediately Sonido to Sano's position, where-ever he was, likely causing Sano pain due to his [Bleed Out] ability, which caused old wounds to hurt, with older wounds hurting more than newer wounds. Once there, he swung his Zanpakutou horizontally, attempting to bifucate the Shinigami whos name he didn't even know yet. Names were irrelevant; the moment he entered Hueco Mundo he became fresh meat.

M'runa rolled her eyes as the shinigami shouted some kind of garbage about how epic he was. Clearly he didn't think before speaking, since regardless of his claim, if M'runa had wanted to hit him in the head, he would have been hit in the head, she had purposely aimed for his feet to try and make him stop and pay attention to the two Vasto made Arrancar's that were telling him to get lost.

Sano Mazi went on about seeing Bashira and how attacking him was death and all M'runa heard was that the guy was a moron coming into someone else's home and acting like he owned the place. Luckily M'runa didn't have to figure out who was going to try to kill the arrogant invading shinigami first because Lazarus fired an eyeball cero thing at the guy before disappearing in a bang of speed from M'runa's side to the shinigami in question who Lazarus then slashed at.

She instead cross her arms, her spear-like zanpaktou still on her back, and just watched. She could intervene at any point even from this distance, so it wasn't like she needed to put in the effort of actually running that long ass distance like Lazarus could and did. She figured she could probably take a pot shot or two at the shinigami while he reacted to Lazarus' assault, but she was more interested in how Lazarus had improved and what he could do rather than helping right now, besides as far as she could tell this Shinigami was the same as Bashira and if the two of them could technically feasibly kill her.. then this guy shouldn't be too much "harder" surely. Though M'runa figured one of the hollow would die if it came to that even if they achieved victory.

Ah well. Didn't matter right now. M'runa just kept her eyes glues on the battle for now.

Sano frowned a bit as the Cero began to rapidly approach his position. It was fast, much faster than normal and if Sano hadn't already been a little on edge on account of where he was he probably would've just taken it on the chest. Today was not one of those days, Sano was in the belly of the beast and whether he liked it or not he knew he needed to act right and keep his wits about him. He drew his sword with both hands, a deep breath was inhaled in an instant as his arms raised above his head. One fluid downward motion would be followed by an exhale, and the energy of the oncoming cero would find itself rapidly dispersed between Sano's blade, and the sands lying at his feet. This was of course followed by the Arrancar flinging himself at Sano in one swift motion, and it seemed as though in this moment something inside of him.. changed.

Agony. A lifetimes worth of scars seemed to decide that now would be the time he remembered them. Misery didn't even begin to describe what he felt as he reexperienced every wound he ever had once again, but this momentary pause would only be indicated by Sano's pupils shrinking in the moment, then the slowness with which he would respond. The man had moved to cut him, and Sano's hand lurched down towards the blade with a bloody and clearly irritated vengeance as he lifted the Arrancar and the blade into the air. "I want you to go away for good.. DIE."

In an instant, Sano would Shunpo forward and in one clean movement he would try to slice the man in two diagonally across his chest.

Hopefully, this little game had ended.

Lazarus had his sword grabbed by an obviously in-pain Shinigami who had gritted his teeth, and smirked despite holding onto his weapon firmly and having the Shinigami lift the both of them into the air, declare he wanted Lazarus gone for good, and attempted to cut him into two pieces with a Shunpo. Lazarus contorted his body and flipped around, landing on the edge of the Zanpakutou being swung down where he used to be, sliding off of it and onto the ground afterward.

He cracked his neck, sighing softly. Names were probably not going to be given out, which meant he had to mentally keep referring to the bastard as "The Shinigami". Maybe he could just call him The Bastard instead. Lazarus seemed to decide to let M'runa have a turn, taking a few steps back, as he wanted to think instead. He hoped M'runa would play along and give him time.

Even if The Bastard was only here to talk to Bashira, to what end? What could another Shinigami want with Bashira? If she had a spy in their midst, it was incredibly unlikely to be someone as strong as Sano, simply because there's no way to not notice his existence. It felt like burning, but not like fire; Lazarus didn't currently understand it. But why Bashira? There were moving pieces he didn't understand on a board he couldn't see all of in a game he couldn't hope to comprehend. All he knew was that it was his current ambition to stand atop the ashes when everyone else kills each other, no matter who he has to bring down to get there. He'll serve Bashira, faithfully, until the day she shows true weakness, leaves herself exposed, or is half-killed by someone else and Lazarus thinks he could finish the job.

The Bastard was very nearly as strong as Bashira. Maybe stronger, maybe weaker, but very nearly as strong as the important part. Lazarus was distinctly not that strong yet. While M'runa and Lazarus together could possibly take him out, was it worth the inevitable effort? Maybe let him through, so he can see Bashira; maybe he lied and he's here to kill her, at which point Lazarus can decide who he's going to join the side of. Maybe M'runa had already comprehended all of this, which was why she had let Lazarus take a "turn" of testing his strength. The Bastard could very likely accomplish it.

Or, maybe he's telling the truth. Maybe he is only here to talk. Maybe Bashira convinces him to join sides, outright or discretely. Maybe he could in fact see the master plan, and right now had to decide what was in the best interest of both his desires and the grand plan.

At this point, he'd picked up his previously discarded sheathe, and turned to look at M'runa and The Bastard. Had she come to the same conclusions? Were they going to let The Bastard through, were they going to try and stop him, or were they going to play a little bit longer? Either way Lazarus didn't particularly care, but he was very curious to know what M'runa was thinking about. So far she'd proven to be an enigma he couldn't fully understand.

M'runa from her standing perch, closer to the actual Las Noches, was still just watching the brief exchange. She almost thought she'd need to care and step in when Lazarus failed to hit the shinigami and was nearly countered, but since Lazarus seemed to dodge the attack she had otherwise remained unmoved from her spot. Shortly after the initial scuffle started however, it seemed to be over. Lazarus had dodged but then seemed to do some kind of double take of the shinigami's threat level? She wasn't entirely sure since she was so far away and all that had been said was "Die hollow die" or some schtick similar.

However Lazarus just kept walking back towards M'runa until he meandered over to his sheathe and picked it up. While seemingly lost in thought he continued not saying anything. M'runa never stopped staring at the shinigami though, she was decided whether or not she was going to bother. She only cared about challenging Lazarus, who had either determined this guy wasn't worth the time and effort or had decided it was suicidal and stopped, she didn't really care why he had stopped, nor did she put much thought into the reason outright.

But it did mean she just kept standing there watching the man. He said he wanted to see Bashira and according to Lazarus' lack of hostility that was being granted. Far as M'runa cared they could kill eachother and hollow-kind would return to natural rule here in Hueco Mundo so she didn't see any reason to get involved, but that didn't mean that if Bashira said jump she wouldn't. She just wouldn't bother asking how high.

She shrugged so visibly and sarcastically with a total lack of care that even Sano would have noticed if he had eyes, and then stomped her foot on the gatetop where she was, causing hollow inside the building to open the giant ass gate so that Sano could even get in without wrecking the place. Assuming Sano was cooperative their scuffle would wait until Bashira said murder the fool.

M'runa really hoped that would happen too.