Bleach X For Honor: Soul Slayer

Ch. 35

Arata wandered Karakura's streets alone. By the attack's end, he had a brief interaction with Kisuke about the condition of the others. The shopkeeper told Arata that while many had sustained injuries, they would heal in time.

That short conversation told Arata more, however. The shopkeeper's eyes have always been watchful, and his mind always aware. Veiled behind flippant words and a cordial attitude was the mind of a genius whose intellect far surpasses Arata's.

And those same genius eyes were on him. Arata knew wariness when he saw it.

So he made himself scarce. As the day was coming to a close, Arata let his mind wander as his body did. He needed time to himself, to think about what to do now that everyone was going to bar down on him.

He was at a donut shop to rest. The same one Orhime and him went to before their second falling-out. He did not let his mind wander on her. An exasperated breathe left him when he recalled Sakura and her words.

Arata knew that one day the Soul Society would be demanding he explain himself again. It was inevitable. After saving himself from execution by Kenpachi's hand, he gave himself more time, but that was all. He knew they would bite back, wanting answers to burning questions since his sudden arrival.

Where did he come from?

Apparently, Sakura gave them the answer. Or rather one answer.

An answer that would bathe him in a new light.

The hitokiri sighed. 'No doubt they have already came to their own conclusions. Immediate action will be taken, I'm sure of it.' He shouldn't have been surprised. Not even for a moment. The soul reapers were a military unit at the end of the day. Any conflict or unforeseen obstacle would be tackled head on, to be disposed of as soon as possible. Especially now since they were at war with Aizen. They couldn't afford any possible setbacks.

But...

He had hoped they would forget. Focus on more important matters than just one man and his shaded background. He thought he would have until the end of the war to give them an answer.

He then berated himself for thinking like that. It was naïve of him to do so. He become too comfortable; too hopeful. It was unbecoming of him. He was Sakura's student. He was a hitokiri. He wasn't like her. He wasn't-

Arata halted his thoughts, and sighed once more.

Orihime was still training in the Soul Society. She was safe. She was away.

For Arata, it meant so much more than he wanted it to be.

Meanwhile...

Candice had always wore her heart on her sleeve. Out of all the female sternritters, she and Bambietta were the more vocal of the group and the first to react to new developments.

Even more so if those developments were just outside their door.

The arrancar's second invasion was... not she was expecting. Before her king made his departure to Arata's homeland, he had told the cliff notes version of upcoming events so she can be able to report their progress or any strange happenings. Before the arrival of Arata, she was essentially told that Grimmjow's squad would inevitably fail, resulting in the loss of his fraccion and his arm after dealing major damage to the soul reapers.

Those things did happen down to the letter. The only thing she was surprised by was Arata and Sakura's involvement. Despite being powerhouses, their overall influence in the attack was minimal. Arata burned Grimmjow's arm, but it was still the arm that would later be sliced off.