Uryū Ishida vs. Cirucci Sanderwicci is a battle taking place during the Invasion of Hueco Mundo between Uryū Ishida and Arrancar #105. Cirucci Sanderwicci, acting as the first real test of the former's abilities after his grueling training with Ryūken Ishida.
Prelude[]
Uryū Ishida is confronted by Cirucci Sanderwicci.
After Uryū Ishida enters Las Noches alongside his friends, they reach a crossroads with five different exits and strong Reiatsu emanating from the paths ahead. At Rukia Kuchiki's behest, the five of them split up and each take a different exit.[2] Soon afterward, in a large room filled with tall pillars, Uryū is confronted by Cirucci Sanderwicci.[3]
Battle[]
Cirucci casually blocks a Heilig Pfeil fired at her from behind by Uryū.
Moments later, Uryū frantically evades as the bladed disc of Cirucci's Zanpakutō crashes down onto the ground where he was standing from the pillar she is standing atop, prompting a maniacally laughing Cirucci to proclaim it is useless to hide from her and that there is no way Uryū can escape her, only to be interrupted when a Heilig Pfeil hurtles toward her from a pillar behind her. Yanking the blade disc back up, Cirucci blocks the Heilig Pfeil with it, causing the latter to disperse, and requests that Uryū not attack her while she is speaking with an annoyed expression.[4]
Uryū is slashed by Cirucci's Zanpakutō after failing to block it with Ginrei Kojaku.
Holding the other end of the line holding the blade disc between her fingers, Cirucci begins rapidly spinning it through the air to her right and questions if all Human men are this rude prior to letting go of the line and sending the disc crashing down into the base of the pillar that Uryū was hiding behind, forcing him to dodge once more. With Uryū calling her a hypocrite for insulting his choice in clothing, an unimpressed Cirucci yanks on her handle of her Zanpakutō, causing the blade disc to suddenly leap toward Uryū from the ground it was embedded in. When Uryū blocks the disc with his Heilig Bogen, Ginrei Kojaku, he struggles to protect himself while Cirucci points out that he is not wielding a shield and cannot get too cocky before the disc rips through Ginrei Kojaku and slashes Uryū's shoulder, sending him flying back toward a nearby doorway.[5]
Pesche Guatiche curses himself for following the weakest fighter.
As Uryū gets to his feet and curses, a frightened Pesche Guatiche watches from behind a doorway leading into the chamber and chastises himself for following the weakest-looking member of the group, having ranked Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends from strongest to weakest as Yasutora Sado, Renji, Ichigo, Rukia, and Uryū. Pondering whether or not to help Uryū since Cirucci is so strong, which leaves him uncertain of whether or not he can do anything even though he cannot simply stand by and watch, Pesche notices how short Cirucci's skirt is and realizes that he can almost see her underwear from where he is standing.[6]
Pesche narrowly evades an attack from Cirucci.
Atop her pillar, Cirucci mockingly asks Uryū if he has been hurt and assumes that he is too injured to respond prior to noticing Pesche attempting to sneak into the room. Annoyed by this, Cirucci yanks her Zanpakutō's blade disc upward and over Uryū to smash into Pesche's location, forcing him to evade by leaping to the side while she demands to know who he is. After Pesche somersaults for several meters and comes to a halt while resting on his head and neck, Uryū addresses him by his full name, which leads Pesche to presume that Uryū has romantic feelings for him if he can remember this after only hearing it once, to Uryū's consternation.[7]
Uryū argues with Pesche over his outfit consisting entirely of white clothing.
Sending them both flying with another attack, an irritated Cirucci wonders if Pesche is some sort of termite, and when an outraged Pesche proclaims that he is actually a stag beetle, an exasperated Uryū asks him if it even matters. In turn, Pesche asserts that stag beetles are cool due to their shiny black carapaces, but Uryū points out how Pesche is dressed entirely in white, though Pesche turns this back on him and observes that Uryū is also dressed entirely in white. When a flustered Uryū claims that there is nothing wrong with white clothing and that he takes pride in his, an unnerved Pesche notes that this makes Uryū sound like a commercial for laundry detergent, to the latter's chagrin.[8]
Uryū and Pesche begin fleeing from the rapid pursuit of Cirucci's blade disc.
Suddenly, Cirucci interrupts this by sending the two of them flying with another strike from her bladed disk, which she pulls back up to grind in place on the handle of her Zanpakutō, and determines that Pesche is with Uryū, who frantically denies this due to Pesche being a Hollow and tells the latter to shut up when he protests this due to thinking they were friends. Amused by this, Cirucci begins chasing Uryū and Pesche with her blade disc as Uryū clarifies that he said this in an attempt to prevent Cirucci from attacking Pesche, who is touched by his kindness. With Uryū demanding to know why he is even here when Ichigo told him to go home earlier, Pesche details how he is searching for Nel due to her running off after Ichigo and questions where she is, who Ichigo is, and how he will find her prior to inquiring if Uryū is Ichigo, to the latter's complete vexation.[9]
Pesche elbows Uryū out of the way to battle Cirucci himself.
Uryū reminds Pesche that the latter just addressed him by name a second ago and that Ichigo is the spiky-haired Shinigami, only for Pesche to bring up how both he and Renji match this description, leaving Uryū flabbergasted by the workings of Pesche's brain. Upon seeing the blade disc grinding through the wall next to him, Uryū realizes that Cirucci has caught up to them and narrowly dodges her subsequent attack while readying Ginrei Kojaku, but Pesche elbows him out of the way and tell Uryū to leave this to him. Though Uryū points out how much stronger Cirucci is, a trembling Pesche assures Uryū that he has a secret weapon in the form of a liquid he can spit out that makes anything it touches highly slippery, which prompts as an aghast Uryū wonders how this could possibly be helpful.[10]
Pesche coats the area around Cirucci in Infinite Slick.
Pesche fires Infinite Slick at the blade disc, which is coated in the substance and bounces harmlessly off Pesche upon slamming into him, to Cirucci's surprise. Turning his gaze upward, Pesche fires more Infinite Slick at the top of the pillar Cirucci is standing on, which prompts her to leap into the air and mock Pesche for believing he could hit her with it. However, Cirucci sees the Infinite Slick coating the top of every pillar around her and can only stare in shock as her foot slips off the top of another pillar upon landing on it, causing her to instead crash face-down onto the ground below while screaming.[11]
Cirucci activates her Resurrección, Golondrina.
Upon seeing this, a triumphant Pesche criticizes Cirucci for underestimating him since he can release the Infinite Slick forever, which Uryū expresses pity toward her for, and announces the name of his technique, which Uryū is annoyed at due to it sounding somewhat cool. With Uryū urging Pesche to run away before Cirucci regains consciousness since he simply got a lucky shot on her, an enraged Cirucci activates her Resurrección, Golondrina, which clads her in a large pair of wings, a long tail, and lengthened arms and hands with a large mane of hair while cutting through the pillars surrounding her as she proclaims that she is going to crush the two of them rather than continue playing around now that they have made a fool out of her and introduces herself as Arrancar #105.[12] As Uryū and Pesche begin running, Cirucci wonders who to slice up first and uses one of her wings to attack them with Ala Cortadola.[13]
Cirucci's bladed wing easily slashes through several pillars with Ala Cortadola.
Cirucci's wing chops through several more pillars while Uryū and Pesche evade, leading Cirucci to mockingly praise Uryū for being so good at running away. Leaping off a severed pillar, Uryū turns around in midair and forms Ginrei Kojaku to fire several Heilig Pfeil down at Cirucci. Upon seeing her deflect them with the blade feathers of one of her wings, Uryū deduces that the feathers are vibrating at high speeds due to the noise they are making and asks Pesche to use his Infinite Slick again, only for Pesche to not recognize the name and have to be reminded by an irritated Uryū that it is the strange fluid he spit out earlier. With Pesche taking offense to it being described this way, an exasperated Uryū demands that he use it again, but when a confident Pesche turns his head and attempts to do so, nothing comes out of his protuberance, leading him to note with embarrassment that he seems to have run out.[14]
Uryū is left aghast by Pesche lying.
An aghast Uryū points out that its name indicates that Pesche has an endless supply of it, prompting Pesche to attempt to clarify this as a slight exaggeration since it seems like it is nearly infinite, though Uryū insists that it is a lie and Pesche eventually concedes to this. Continuing to run with Uryū, Pesche admits that he thought the technique sounded cooler that way and that he wanted to fit in with the vibe of the moment, only for Uryū to deny there being a vibe in the middle of a battle and call Pesche frustrating just before the latter slips on a patch of Infinite Slick on the ground, to Uryū's chagrin.[15]
Uryū saves Pesche from Cirucci's surprise attack.
Suddenly, one of Cirucci's wings slams down onto Uryū and Pesche from behind, and as Cirucci revels in this, Uryū asks her if she hit her target as he reappears on an intact pillar behind her with Pesche clinging to him. After correcting Cirucci's assumption that this was Shunpo by asserting that his is called Hirenkyaku, Uryū warns Pesche that this may hurt and throws him off the pillar before firing a Heilig Pfeil after him that pins Pesche upside-down to the ground by his loincloth. Musing on Uryū's correction, Cirucci questions what is so special about Hirenkyaku and fires the blade feathers off her right wing toward him with Ala Cortadola Dispersion. Upon seeing the blades hurtling toward him, Uryū fires a Heilig Pfeil at one of them and disappears with Hirenkyaku after seeing it deflected without inflicting any damage.[16]
Cirucci slots her blade feathers back onto her wing.
While mentally noting that the blade feathers, which have cut through the pillar he was standing on and embedded themselves in the far wall, continue to vibrate even after being fired, Uryū senses Cirucci attacking him and evades with Hirenkyaku just before her other wing passes through the air where he was located, destroying a large chunk of the ground in the process. Annoyed at having missed again, Cirucci calls the embedded blade feathers back to her wing with her hand, causing them to slot back into place on it as Uryū observes how fast they reload and how they are preventing him from attacking at any range due to their vibrational properties.[17]
Uryū resorts to using a Seele Schneider against Cirucci.
With Uryū concluding that he has no other choice, Cirucci gleefully fires the blade feathers from her right wing at him once more, but Uryū calmly pulls a Seele Schneider out of a pouch on his hip, activates it, and effortlessly cuts through all the blades, leaving their halves to harmlessly fly past him. As a stunned Cirucci stares at him and wonders what this is, Uryū admits that he did not want to use this yet and stands with the Seele Schneider held like a sword as he invites her to continue their battle.[18] With pieces of the blade feathers falling around him, Uryū admits that he is glad he came prepared and had Kisuke Urahara help him retrieve the Seele Schneider from Karakura Hospital's secret storage area as he identifies it and reveals that it is the only Quincy weapon which has a blade. As Cirucci stares at Uryū in shock, an outraged Pesche calls him a thief for borrowing the Seele Schneider without permission, and when an annoyed Uryū points out that he never said it was done without permission, Pesche indicates that this proves he is a thief.[19]
Pesche accuses Uryū of being a thief.
While an exasperated Uryū question whose side Pesche is on anyway and tell him to shut up, which Pesche responds to by addressing Uryū as Ichigo and asserting that this is no way to talk to someone who just saved his life, to Uryū's further consternation, Cirucci picks up on Uryū's mention of being a Quincy and responds to him claiming to be honored that she knows of them by mockingly describing them as only mattering due to being a race wiped out by the Shinigami. Acknowledging this, Uryū reappears behind Cirucci and slashes at her.[20]
The tips of Cirucci's feather blades are severed.
Though Cirucci counters this by striking at Uryū with her left wing and its blade feathers while questioning why Uryū would involve himself with Shinigami if this is the case, Uryū declines to answer and suggests that Cirucci instead focus on her blade feathers, which Cirucci is shocked to see have all had their tips cut off as well. Uryū lands and explains that the sudden rise in his Reiatsu was due to the Seele Schneider being designed to counter high-speed vibrations with even faster vibrations, functioning like a chainsaw with the Reishi comprising its surface vibrating across its edge at 3,000,000 cycles per second.[21]
Cirucci discards the excess pieces of Golondrina.
With Uryū concluding that he is very sensitive to Reiatsu as a Quincy and knows that the Reishi vibration rate of the surface of her blade feathers is between 1,100,000 and 1,300,000 cycles per second, making the Seele Schneider more than twice as fast, Cirucci deduces that her blade feathers will not work against him now and detaches them from her wings alongside her elongated arms, leaving only her mane, tail, and bare wings. When Uryū comments on her being able to alter her released state like articles of clothing and wonders if this is true for all Arrancar, Cirucci clarifies that she has actually discarded those parts of Golondrina for good.[22]
Cirucci channels her Reiryoku into Ala Cortadola Hachador.
Explaining how the Resurrección of an Arrancar lets them regain their original fighting abilities from their time as a Hollow, Cirucci notes that they can only return to a fully humanoid form when those abilities are restored to the form of a sealed Zanpakutō and that altering their form without reverting first causes serious damage to it, akin to burning an arm off. After revealing that Golondrina actually hampers her by consuming much of her Reiryoku with her wings and blade feathers, a sweating Cirucci asserts that it is better to discard them and free up that energy to be used elsewhere if she cannot win with them as the tip of her tail splits apart to generate a large fan-shaped energy blade above it for Ala Cortadola Hachador, which she describes as focusing all of her power into one attack.[23]
Uryū defends himself from Cirucci with the Seele Schneider.
When an unnerved Uryū inquires if this war is really so important that she would risk everything to win it, Cirucci counters that they would not have gone to war in the first place if it was not important to them because Arrancar are soldiers and the Espada are their leaders, meaning that they exist to kill the enemy and win while defeat is always unacceptable, prior to lunging forward and attacking Uryū with Ala Cortadola Hachador. Upon seeing Uryū's Seele Schneider beginning to cut through the energy fan, Cirucci retreats and points out that there is no need to make herself vulnerable to an opponent wielding a sword.[24]
Uryū reveals that the Seele Schneider makes Reishi easier to steal.
After reforming the energy fan into a large sword with Ala Cortadola Gradiator, Cirucci concludes that a battle between two swords of equal power is won by the one with the longer reach. However, Uryū picks up on her mention of equal power and states that she is a bit confused before clarifying that Seele Schneider is not meant for cutting through vibrating Reishi, but instead to weaken the bonds between Reishi and make it easier to steal. With a startled Cirucci looking up to see Ala Cortadola Gradiator being broken down, Uryū informs Cirucci that a Quincy gathers the Reishi around himself to use as a weapon and the Seele Schneider is the most powerful embodiment of that, meaning most of her Reishi is his now.[25]
Cirucci is shot through the chest with the Seele Schneider.
While an enraged Cirucci tells him to shut up and leaps forward, Uryū realizes that she was wrong about one other thing and reveals that the Seele Schneider is not a sword as he nocks it in Ginrei Kojaku and declares that a Quincy only uses a bow and arrows. Apologetically telling Cirucci that she loses, Uryū confirms that victory was indeed a matter of reach in the end and fires the Seele Schneider, piercing Cirucci through the chest.[26]
Aftermath[]
Uryū leaves with Pesche after depowering Cirucci.
With the deactivated Seele Schneider falling to the ground alongside Cirucci, Uryū picks it up and looks down at Cirucci forlornly prior to dissipating the Heilig Pfeil holding Pesche in place and telling the latter to leave with him. When Pesche points out that Cirucci is still alive, Uryū asserts that the victor gets to choose whether his foe lives or dies and that he will be playing by his own rules and not those of the Arrancar, even if letting Cirucci live is an insult to her. Uryū elaborates that he pierced Cirucci's Saketsu, the source of her spiritual powers, and that her anatomy being similar to those of Shinigami means that she will not be able to harm him even if she regains consciousness and pursues him. Content with this answer, Pesche agrees to go and addresses Uryū as Ichigo once more, to the latter's annoyance.[27]
Rudbornn Chelute prepares to execute Cirucci.
Shortly afterward, Golondrina falls apart, leaving only Cirucci's humanoid body lying on the ground as she curses Uryū for doing this to her. Suddenly, Rudbornn Chelute surrounds her with his Exequias and informs Cirucci that they have come for her as he unsheathes his Zanpakutō and requests that she not struggle, which Cirucci smiles grimly at before cursing one last time.[28]
References[]
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 229, page 6
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 248, pages 10-19
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 251, page 2
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 255, pages 12-15
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 255, pages 15-18
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 256, pages 5-7
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 256, pages 7-9
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 256, pages 9-11
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 256, pages 11-13
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 256, pages 13-14
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 256, pages 15-17
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 256, pages 17-19
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 257, pages 1-4
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 257, pages 4-8
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 257, page 8
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 257, pages 9-13
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 257, pages 14-15
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 257, pages 16-19
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 258, pages 1-5
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 258, pages 5-6
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 258, pages 7-8
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 258, pages 9-10
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 258, pages 11-12
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 258, pages 13-15
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 258, pages 15-17
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 258, pages 17-19
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 259, pages 1-4
- ↑ Bleach manga; Chapter 259, pages 5-7