Ch 124: Noah’s despair.

[User is advised to isolate himself for a discussion with Lilith.]

Noah blinked as he received the sudden message from his system, and he turned to one of the girls who remained with him in the kitchen to wash the dishes.

"Claire, can you take over, please?"

"Sure?" replied Claire, putting aside the kitchen towel to take up the sponge instead. It was most unlike their Master to abandon a chore like this.

"Thanks." smiled Noah as he quickly dried his hands and left the kitchen, heading to his room. Once inside, he locked the door, and bowed deeply as Lilith appeared standing near the bed, her aura muted.

"Lilith-sama." said Noah with a bow, hoping he hadn't made a mistake somewhere.

Lilith smiled, no doubt knowing what he was thinking about.

"Noah, I decided to speak to you in person, because I owe you an apology. Although the whole thing is still partially your fault."

"Lilith-sama, you're worrying me right now." said Noah uneasily.

"Yes. The part that is your fault is the way you rescued Rukia Kuchiki. You fulfilled the objectives of the quest you were given, and I like your willingness to depart from the scenarios I inspire myself from. But, from the point of view of us watching gods, the whole thing was still a disappointment. To speak bluntly, there wasn't enough action. I've been receiving complaints."

"Oh… I understand, Lilith-sama. I admit that it must have been pretty anti-climactic. I'll avoid cheating so much next time."

"If it was only that, I wouldn't have come in person. Next is the part where I'm at fault, Noah. Loki used this to goad me into making a bet. A bet that you made me lose for not going after the Emperor Arcana yet, and I made the mistake of not asking for precise details about the exact nature of the stakes. What he required is something I will be teased about for millennia. And you and some of your girls are going to be involved in this mess."

"Come again?" asked Noah, very worried.

"Noah, I am going to give you a mandatory quest, for you and three of your women. One with some very peculiar specifics. You cannot refuse. But as compensation for what I'm going to force upon you, you will not have to pay any cost to receive that quest, and the reward will be that resurrection ability you've been saving for."

"That sounds very ominous, Lilith-sama, although the reward is very generous as usual. How bad is it?"

"Something typical of Loki. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes." replied Lilith with a small chuckle.

She told him the details of the quest. And Noah's worried expression quickly changed into one of horrified denial.

…

Two weeks passed since Lilith's ominous warning, and Noah did his best to act normal as to not worry his girls. Except for Asuna, Ren and Fubuki, his chosen companions of misfortune, whom he needed to inform and give them time to digest the news. The three of them had stared at him in disbelief and been extremely reluctant when Noah told them about the quest he had received, but they had still accepted their role and taken the time to coordinate their efforts. They had even hidden in the basement of one of the unused Palaces to hide their preparations from the other girls.

Since Noah now had the possibility of being given the Resurrection skill as a reward, he had invested 90k Yin points, almost all that he had, into improving his item creation skill to the Mastery rank. The gear he could now produce was well above the grade of Holy Swords, and the bonus stats he could imbue on them were large enough to be significant.

Producing a single weapon or piece of armor now drained most of his power, and he needed hours to recover, but they were well worth it. The katana in his hands was a prime example of it.

"Eclipse. Master-Crafted Katana, first of the 'Eclipse' series. Creator: Noah Enfield. Quasi-indestructible. Strength +15, Agility +15, self-cleaning, self-sharpening, self-repairing."

Noah had found out that the Mastery level of Item Creation allowed him to assign a name to his items. Doing so somehow made the item a little more powerful, and he could memorize the creation process as a pattern, allowing for a slightly easier replication.

Noah was busy creating a nice sheath for the sword when his smartphone started ringing. He finished, took the smartphone, recognized the person calling and accepted the communication.

"Hi, Urahara-san." sighed Noah.

"Hi, Enfield-kun. You sound… tired. I am sorry if I'm bothering, but something urgent came up."

"It's no problem, please don't mind it. What is the issue?" asked Noah, knowing very well why Urahara was contacting him.

"Two Arrancars have come to the human world and captured Inoue Orihime, the friend of Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Yes, I remember her."

"Good. Kurosaki-kun and his friends are going to go to Hueco Mundo to try to rescue her, this evening. I have spoken with Shikoku, and she's willing to help bring them close to Las Noches, but she will return to the human world the instant she is done."

"That's understandable, considering her trauma."

"Yes. Can I ask you to lend us your help once again, please?"

"Sure. I'll bring a few more people, too." nodded Noah. "But you must be aware that they took her as bait, right? It means Aizen is making his move. You should warn Soul Society."

"I have sent a Hell Butterfly to Soul Society already." replied Urahara, referring to the small butterfly-like familiars that could be created by a special Hado spell. They could almost instantly reach Soul Society and deliver messages.

"Where and when?"

"In my basement, at 21:00, please. Yoruichi was with me when we learned about it, and she'll come with you."

"So in about five hours. We'll be there. And please, try not to laugh." sighed Noah as he ended the call.

Noah made a few phone calls, then sat on the ground and started to meditate. He had just enough time to recover his energy spent while creating Eclipse, make a second one for Ren, and recover from it.

…

Shikoku slowly emerged from her shadow inside Kisuke Urahara's basement, facing the people that waited by the stairs.

"Ah, Shikoku-san. Thank you for coming." cheerfully called out Urahara, as the others looked at her warily.

"We are indebted to you, so I thought I should at least help you get to that place." nodded Shikoku.

"Let me introduce you. Everyone, this is Shikoku. Someone who escaped the place where Orihime is likely held captive. Shikoku, this is Ichigo Kurosaki, Ishida Uryuu, and Sado Yasutora. And you already know Yoruichi."

"Yes. Greetings, everyone. And hello again, Yoruichi-san." smiled Shikoku, nodding at Yoruichi in her Shinigami form. She already had seen Ichigo a few times, as he had visited a few times the group of former Shinigamis that had offered shelter to the Thunder Gods. She had even helped sedate him once, when he had lost control of himself and the hollow part of his power had possessed his body. But she wasn't certain that Urahara and the others were aware of it, so she didn't mention it.

"Hi. I appreciate your willingness to help."

Shikoku nodded in acknowledgement, then looked at Urahara.

"Urahara-san, have you contacted him?"

"I have, and he said he was coming with a few more people. Although he seemed a bit under the weather. I hope he's not sick or…" Before Urahara could complete his sentence, four people appeared together, fifteen meters from them.

Shikoku felt a sudden urge to rub her eyes as the newcomers jumped forward one by one, doing somersaults before landing closer in formation.

"I-I AM KITSUNE RANGER BLACK!" reluctantly shouted the closest one, the only male among the newcomers, going through several strange stances like an actor in a kung-fu movie before ending in a crouch with one leg fully extended to the side, his right arm raised horizontally in front of him, and his left fist high in the air.

He was dressed just as strangely in a black leather bodysuit, boots and gloves with white large white rhombuses over his torso, forearms and boots. A thick golden belt from which hung a sword completed the outfit. His head was covered by a black fox-shaped helmet with an opaque visor.

"I AM… KITSUNE RANGER RED!" shouted the woman behind him and to the right, standing with her legs spread wide apart in a dabbing posture, right arm spread high as she seemed to want to hide her face in the crook of her left elbow. She was wearing an identical outfit and helmet as the first, but colored red instead of black.

"K-KITSUNE RANGER BLUE!" screamed the third woman on the left, mirroring Ranger Red's dabbing posture.

"I… I AM KITSUNE RANGER… GREEN!" choked out the last one, standing behind Ranger Black on one leg with the other folded, her arms spread up and wide in a Y shape.

"T-TO SAVE KITSUNE RANGER PINK!" They chanted together.

"WE ANSWER THE CALL!"

Shikoku forgot to breath as her brain crashed.

"…"

"…"

"…"

For long, long seconds, no one uttered a word.

Then Yoruichi started snickering. The snicker turned into full bellied laugh, and Urahara folded in half as he also burst into laughter.

"What-What is this?! Are you sure you have the correct address?" gasped Urahara as he tried to breath.

Ichigo started laughing as well as he pointed with a finger, while Uryuu facepalmed, and Chad made a side-step toward the stairs, as if he felt an urge to get away from the crazies.

"Argh! I'm already so over this shit!" screamed Noah as he abandoned his ridiculous crouching posture and  stomped the ground several times in frustration.

"Kuro-kun, have you gone mad? What is the meaning of this?" asked Urahara, struggling to keep his face neutral.

"The goddess I work for lost a bet to that freaking god who shall not be named, and this is the result! We'll have to play bloody Sentai Rangers, complete with posing and introductions, with every, single, enemy, we meet until we find Orihime, and we're only allowed to remove those thrice be damned outfits then. And I can't just teleport to her like I did with Kuchiki, because no, that would be too bloody easy!"

"Oh… You have it hard." muttered Chad in sympathy.

"I hope you're getting paid extra." coughed Uryuu, unwilling to look at them directly.

"Boya, I'm so glad I got to see you suffer in such a way. Ahahah!" said Yoruichi, trying and failing to stop laughing.

"It could have been worse, I guess. It could have been, magical girls!" she smirked.

"Yoruichi, if you keep laughing, when we return from this mission, there will be a magical girl outfit with your name on it. I hope you like pink." promised Noah.

That shut her up nicely, as Yoruichi's eyes widened and she closed her mouth with a snap.

"I feel like it would be better if I didn't ask, but, who are your companions, Kuro-kun?" asked Shikoku.

"Call us Red, Blue and Green." said Ren, blushing intensely inside the helmet. "If we can get this thing done and over with without it ever being linked to us, we would prefer it."

Shikoku recognized Ren's voice and quickly nodded.

"Then, if everyone is ready, I'll bring us ten kilometers from Las Noches's outer wall. I won't be staying."

"Yes, please, Shikoku. Let's get this farce started." sighed Noah.

Shikoku nodded, and created a number of black snakes.

"To move through my shadow and reach that place, physical contact is necessary, so I will coil some of my snakes around your waists." warned Shikoku, not wanting those who didn't know about her to panic.

Noah didn't object as her hair extended, and one of the snakes coiled around him. Shikoku's shadow darkened and expanded outward, covering his own, and he started sinking into it.

It only took fifteen seconds or so for the darkness to leave place to the familiarity of Hueco Mundo. The desert of white sand, with the occasional desiccated tree. The only anomalies were that No Hollow was emerging from the ground or rushing at them, and the vast fortress of white stone some distance in front of them.

Noah estimated that the outer wall alone was easily fifty meters high and had a diameter of roughly five or six kilometers, and thick cylindrical towers easily reached three times that height. Something that big should have taken generations to build for thousands of humans. But Aizen had managed to build something so huge, even though his private army of Espada, Fraccion and Arrancars likely numbered less than a hundred.

But the fiction's plot required a vast fortress, where a good dozen intense fights would be able to take place without interfering with each other. So, Aizen got a humongous place to call his man cave when Lilith created this world.

" There are no gates in the wall. To go inside, you need to go through the underground maze." Said Shikoku as she pointed toward a number of small white structures, about the size of a freight container,  between themselves and the fortress. They were too far to see what was inside, but Noah knew that each of them was the top of a stairwell.

"Will you be okay with making your way back when you're done?" asked Shikoku.

"Yes. Thank you, Shikoku, but we've got that covered" smiled Noah, before turning to his companions.

"We should separate once we're inside in order to reduce the number of times each of us will have to suffer doing those introductions. How about I go with Ichigo, Green goes with Chad, Red with Uryuu, and Blue goes with Yoruichi?"

"Yes. We can regroup as soon as Orih… I mean, Kistune Ranger Pink is secured." said Asuna, her face hidden inside the green helmet.

Kitsune Ranger Blue, the only one among them not to have a katana tied to her belt, nodded.

"Let's go!" said Ichigo, starting to run toward the nearest access to the maze.

"See you later, Shikoku, and thanks." said Noah as he ran after him.

"Yes, good luck, everyone!" nodded Shikoku before she started sinking in her shadow.

Asuna and Chad, Ren and Uryuu, Fubuki and Yoruichi also started running, each pair toward a different entrance.

As he ran, Noah started using promise to map out the maze and find the locations of the low level Arrancars guarding it.

He quickly found the shortest path to enter Las Noches, but didn't choose it. The gods wanted fights, so Noah would make sure they were satisfied.

"Hey, Kuro-san…" said Ichigo as he looked back at Noah.

"I'm sorry, but because of that damn bet, you must call me Kitsune Ranger Black, or just Black, until we're done saving your girlfriend." said Noah.

"My girlfriend?" choked Ichigo, grinding to a stop. "You're mistaken! She's only a friend!"

"Oh? I see. Sorry about the misunderstanding." replied Noah, mentally adding Orihime to his to-do list and thanking Japanese authors for their herbivore protagonists. When he had only been a reader of those novels, he had often cursed their main characters for being dense and timid, to the point of being insulting to the girls vying for their attention. But now, he felt thankful to them.

"Yes. Anyway, could you please just do what you did with Rukia in Soul Society?"

"I'm sorry, but I have been told in no uncertain terms that I shouldn't cheat like that anymore. Don't worry, we'll save her. We'll just have to defeat the enemies standing in our way. Like the ones we're about to face."

Ichigo nodded, and they resumed their run. About a hundred meters farther, the passage opened into a circular room fifty meters wide and ten meters high. Two Arrancars were waiting. A slender one with a partial bird-like mask and a huge one about six meters tall.

As Noah and Ichigo slowed down to face them, Noah sighed, and started his somersault and poses routine.

"I AM KITSUNE RANGER BLACK! I WILL DEFEAT YOU EVILDOERS!"

The two Arrancars froze in shock, victim of Noah's psychological attack, and the later, driven by an urge to erase from existence anyone who had witnessed his shame, quickly cast Augment on himself, used Shunpo to appear near the slender Arrancar and managed to behead him before he could react.

All Arrancars were able to use Sonido, a technique rivaling Shunpo in potency, but not all Shunpo or Sonido users were equal, far from it, and with his passive attributes and Augment to accelerate his speed and reaction time, Noah was confident that no low level Arrancar would be able to rival him.

"Getsuga Tenshou! (Moon-fang Heaven Piercer)" yelled Ichigo as he triggered his shikai, and a large wave of blue energy erupted from his oversized blade, crashing into the giant Arrancar and making a deep furrow on the stone floor and wall.

The big Hollow died, and Noah sheathed his own weapon.

"Which path should we take?" asked Ichigo, looking at the three tunnels connected to the room.

"You decide." shrugged Noah.

"Then this one." chose Ichigo, taking the leftmost one.

Noah followed, wondering if Ichigo's choice was truly his own. The other passage would also have bought them closer to Las Noches, but by choosing left, Ichigo had guaranteed that they would meet with a very peculiar group of hollows. Noah had noticed them as he was scanning the maze, and they were headed roughly in their direction.

The passage ended in ascending stairs. Ichigo and Noah climbed without hesitation and emerged at ground level, significantly closer from Las Noches's outer wall.