[The Sun and the Moon][INV]

Gods fucking save him. Even as gorgeous as this expanding desert was..Well, that's what it was. Expanding, so much so that it seemed nigh infinite. He would have continued to look for more unique presences beneath the crust of Hueco Mundo, into the depths of Menos Forest.

Alas, every time he took a trip down there it felt like he was slicing through air. He always chuckled when his mind went to the human food 'I can't believe it's not butter.'

Speeding his pace, he decided there wasn't going to be any special training from Superia if he didn't find something at least half decent besides a few grains of sand. What a bother. He wondered if Theo was still around as well, sad to say he wasn't going to remain as the ruler over this world for long..It was inevitable that someone even stronger was eventually going to claim this from him.

Admittedly, part of the reason he returned so often was to see if anyone was attemping such a thing. As much as he didn't really show it; he had keen appreciation for the future of the desert.

-"Hm?"

His pace gradually slowed down as something began pulling to him at the back of his mind, nudging itself in-between his thoughts. He had extreme trouble focusing on anything else around him if he was contemplating an important topic in his head.

Each step brought him closer to the conclusion: he sensed the presence of a hollow. Mm, and this wasn't an ordinary hollow. This felt like an arrancar's reiatsu. Was Theo building up a little army? Curioser and curioser.

As his walk was held into a stance, he curved his body and began walking back, hands in each pocket. He squinted his eyes, making out nothing in the light sandstorm that covered the area. Strange for a place with hardly any wind.

Satoshi closed his eyes to focus, and he could practically see the man painted in his skull. A bright flaming aura had surrounded the man, a certain ferocity coated it like paint. It almost reminded him of Theo, in a way.

Eventually he came upon a large dune, and bound upwards until he reached the top. The view was now clear, and he could make out the grumpy, hands-in-pocket walk of the arrancar. He couldn't sense him as well as he'd like to from this distance, but it wasn't a weakling like the usual. He was stronger then ordinary, to be expected from an Arrancar.

He scanned for remaining hollows, only to glimpse at further endless desert. His head turned. He could see Las Noches' silhouette as he stood atop the dune, and nothing could be seen in that direction either.

-He raised his hand and placed his finger on his chin in contemplation.

Aries had such talk about building a revolutionary army of intense magnitude. Each was to be the protector of Hueco Mundo..And yet, all he could see was a single Arrancar. There was nothing but white sands..Nothing was built or even rebuilt. Good gods, Aries. What have you been doing all these years?

-His eyes closed in solace of better times. Though not many came to pass.

-His hand slipped into his pocket to pull out his Informational Communicator device. A portable database given to him by Gage.

As his eyes opened, his contemplation had summed up to quite some time passing, and he found that the red-headed Arrancar was speeding towards his direction. Satoshi looked down and opened a new file to begin writig down information about this individual. He might as well get what he can about this man while he has the chance.

The Sonido of the man was formidable, but nothing he hadn't seen before. It was average for an Arrancar, and he was brash, meaning he must have been quite young for a hollow. Aries has been training him since his incarnation, then? Interesting, he thought; writing that down in his device.

The fireball Arrancar found himself before the pale Vizard, with the device in hand.

-His head turned slightly in confusion, raising an eyebrow as he began yelling at him. His eyes payed no attention to the fists or his attitude. If such a man was going to cause any sort of harm to Satoshi, they'd want to open with something a little better then that, or they weren't going to do much to him that he doesn't already self inflict during extreme training.

"Uhh, my bad... you seen some big fucker runnin' around here..? Probably like.. 10 foot tall... strong lookin'..?"

Satoshi's eyes closed, and his free hand slowly raised to his neck, and he scratched at it slowly, and then accelerated aggressively as his head twitched in thought of the man's question. And then he suddendly stopped, his amber eyes slowly revealing as he opened his lids.

"Try menos forest."

He pointed downwards.

His eyes intensified as he took a step closer to Pico, and examined stared at every part of his body for at least half a second.

"May I ask something, now?" He asked rhetorically.

"You..Probably know Ari-..Theo, since you're an Arrancar from around here."

-He scratched his head; full of silver hair.

"Has he been making any progress in his endeavours to protect Hueco Mundo? You can't be all he has..What is your name, friend?"

He raised his device, and kept looking at him, waiting for answers.

Fucking christ on a crutch, was he serious? Where did Aries even find a man like this? It was like practically walking into a younger mirror image of Theo himself. This was going to piss him off..He could feel his sandles digging into the sand with every second.

Calm down..Calm yourself. Tension in his body was beginning to build up from his natural impatience to situations like these..

He couldn't handle simple-mindedness as well as others. It was tough on his rather unpredictably short fuse. Satoshi could feel himself getting itchier, his hand reached up and scratched his neck with even more aggression which left skin marks all along his throat.

His heart-rate started to build up, this man's one way conversation was starting to get on his nerves. He couldn't if it was accidental or he was being annoying on purpose. Superia had warned him about situations like these, they required patience. Something he had been lacking for quite a while, and was learning to build.

'First step, acceptance.' His mentor's words rang through his ears, knocking his aggressive train of thought of the tracks.

He stopped scratching, slowly lowering his clawed hand to his side as his eyes slid around their sockets in search of a reply. So, now was the time to try plan b.

Satoshi's face lit with warmth as he attempted to put on a more friendly face-mask, scratching the back of his head awkwardly with a nervous laugh.

"Aha..Well, you see, Theo is an old friend of mine. I need to keep updated on his progress." He said, raising his device to eye-level so that the Arrancar could take witness to his information gathering.

Let's try this again. The Vizard raised his device and smiled once more toward the Arrancar.

"So uh, what did you say your name was again?"

His eyes shifted along the body of the Arrancar before him. Hmm, his mask seems to be minimal on his head, meaning his bestial personality is simply a personality flaw; less of an inherited trait from his feral hollow days.

But as was any indication from previous encounters, his hindsight granted him the knowledge of knowing that personality traits were often amplified when their mask was removed. More defined, meaning this man was probably aggressive even in his hollow days.

-The device clicked as he thumbed the information on his device

His mind was darting around as he filed through different variables in his memory, but he briefly paused his train of thought to key back into the conversation. The Arrancar's manners were rather annoying, but he did say his name; 'Pico'. Right. he didn't know if that was his only name, but it would have to do for now for indetification.

It was a rather unique name to have as an Arrancar, so it shouldn't have been too difficult for a database to identify him. And with the last information thumbed in as he peaked back to his phone..And..Done. Now all that was left was a sample of DNA.

"Oh, I intend to make sand-angels, Pico. As soon as I get a hair strand or two from you, that okay?"

Satoshi's body flickered with a brief sound of air, proceeded by his body almost simultaneously to the side of the arrancar with his finger close to the red head of hair. He quickly plucked a few strands from their follicles and then slowly opened an empty vial from his pocket.

"Hey thanks." He said with a smile of satisfaction. Superia was going to be happy with this.

"Pop." He screwed the lid back on put it back in his pocket.

Sweet! He could tell quite a few things from an Arrancar's DNA. His fullbringer acquaintance, Gage Mekhanic, had a lab underneath Naruki city that was quite well established and easy to access.

Not only that, Superia's lab; which was easier to access, was quite easy to adapt DNA such as this. She was more in-tune with such Alchemical sequences. With this, he could transfer the sample over there for Gage to process.

This allows him effortlessly review the material on file, as well as distinguish any information. Superia was quite pleased with this database connection, as she had one of her own. It was handy that he could synchronize his device to a database of her own, allowing cross examination data to be placed back and forth from two sources.

One of Satoshi's worst traits was lack of empathy. His attention span was minimized not by his brain power, but by his literal inability to emotionally give a shit.

It's something that years of torture had sort of carved into him like commandments to abide by. Part of his training had evolved unlocking those barriers, digging into his roots, and taking himself one step further beyond normal capacities.

Another flaw he had, he had a terrible time controlling, and what he does. His mind wandered, or he could become too focused for no apparent value.

It was a reason that he and Aries had always understood each other..They were beasts of brutality by nature, not by choice. It was their ability to overcome their perceived rage and sadness that made them stronger. Not becoming a warrior, for that was hammered into them from birth.

That urge to kill had always caused him to block himself, to contain his ways of destruction. He reflected his anger away from others and pinpointed it on himself. He feared himself, and it caused his personality to become minimalistic. But now, one thing was for sure as Satoshi grew in power..He had a sudden urge to express his emotion. And even that scared him.

The reiatsu that raised itself had been ignored, he didn't perceive it fast enough through his deep thoughts, his back turned to the Arrancar as he slipped his phone in his pocket, beginning to walk away. The Red-haired man wasn't the only one who had a tough time keeping track of a conversation. It was just in his own way.

-His hand gestured in farewell

"Thanks agai-"

-Until it didn't.

Something that felt similar to a rock had sucker-punched him square in the back. Mid-step, he lost his footing and rolled about 4 meters down the small sand-dune with an orchestra of huffing sounds and thuds.

-OO-AH-AI-OWOHEK-BLAGH

He propped his roll into a slide, his robe and sandles dragging against the sand as he body continued to propell backwards.

His face twitched with a boiling of several different raw emotion. He was speechless at the realization the Arrancar had just nailed him in the pack with a right cross. His surprise came to rolling end, quickly replaced with a stance and look of warning. He was stern, trying to ward off this violence. He didn't have enough control of himself to handle a full on fight like this, and this guy obviously wasn't a lightweight.

His amber eyes lowered as he pierced them at Pico.

"I suggest you revise your actions, Pico of Hueco Mundo. I don't wish to place any misfortune upon a servant of Aries, nor do I wish to send him any flowers for a grave this evening. It's getting late."

There was a purposeful irony of him saying that, in a place of constant moonlight. Satoshi's body was in a relaxed posture, hands loose on his sides. He'd prefer not to do this. However, seeing as how this man was clearly the aggressive type it could really go either way. His attack was enough to leave his numb as well, meaning a few of those aren't something to take lightly. He had to play his next cards carefully.

In a battle you have to be careful, that is an unspoken truth. Being careful embodies many things in a tactical sense. You have to gain an understanding for your enemies motives, as well as their techniques. Underestimating your enemy, or even overestimating your enemy was one of the most common mistakes in a fight; allowing you to either greatly disappoint yourself about their strength, or disappoint your enemy about your own.

Despite these pro's and cons of war, even that Satoshi was taught with these principles, he could only worry about the actual well-being of his enemy. Strange, really. He wasn't the type of person to care about the opposing side. Hell, usually he'd be glad to wipe out dirt from this world, but this wasn't a 'usual' time for him. The Vizard was on the verge of a breakthrough with his abilities, as well as his mental stability.

Doing could only serve to push his unpredictable fuse in a way that neither of them will find very pretty. His number one priority right now was keeping his progress in one piece, which he found increasingly difficult to do with each moment passing; discovering that this Arrancar was a lot more unnecessarily violent was a bother; especially since Arrancar's weren't something to take lightly when they got angry. What a fucking drag.

It was clear that Pico hadn't any further need to talk after he said so himself, even going so far as to insult his silver hair. He wondered how he even survived this long with that kind of aggression. The red hot chilli pepper leapt off the dunes.

The Vizard's eyes lowered in disappointment, and his amber eyes had begun to glow a sickly gold, nearly copper. He cracked his neck to the left without his hand, and popped both of his shoulders. He wiggled his arms, and the top of his robe fell to either side of him, revealing a scarred, toned body. His right arm had a bracer attached, a bone-knife lay hidden in a spring loaded action.

"The nerve.." He murmured right before the Arrancar slammed into his mid-section with a full blown tackle. His opponent musn't have cared about being predictable, only effective in his brute force attacks. Unfortunately, rarely can you have both. The Vizard allowed the Arrancar to tackle him, even loosening his legs so that it was easier for him. But his plan was to teach him his moves were in-effective, not to fight him directly. That was the best way to avoid his own demons coming out to play.

As soon as his ass hit the sand, Satoshi bent his knees and lowered his body so that Pico's momentum was partially flowing over him instead of directly on top of his body. Pushing his feet out and pulling on Pico's arms away from his body, the Vizard began to use their gravity to launch the Arrancar directly over himself. He would then prop himself to the ground quickly to use this opportunity for subduing. Two fingers pointed toward his enemy, and he spoke quickly and quietly.

"Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini. Look upon yourself with horror and then claw out your own throat! Bakudo number 9, strike."

An aura of red seeped from his fingers for a brief instant before it pulsated right for Pico nearly instantaneously to trap him in a whole-body constraint.