Bleach X For Honor: Soul Slayer

Ch.24

Seeing Grimmjow eat his food gave Nnoitra an unusual blend of indignation and satisfaction. The sexta's doubt in his cooking skills irritated him greatly but the face he made after eating his mapo tofu was just too priceless.

It still surprised Nnoitra he even knew how to cook and knew how to cook really well at that. He never once headed to the kitchen before Sakura came, always claiming that where women rightfully belonged and that it would have been a waste of time. Perhaps his knowledge was linked to his past life as a human? That was what Sakura proposed. There was no faults in her theory so he just accepted it.

Nether the less, he knew how to cook and actually enjoyed it, which was entirely foreign to the quinto. Other than fighting, he never really had a hobby before. He was sure glad he one now, especially one he can share with his dear nee-chan.

For today, the teacher and student decided on doing a bit of cooking before training. How fortunate, Nnoitra thought. He was feeling creative after researching various recipes and wanted to implement what he just learned. And so, he settled on stroganoff with curry-stuffed meatballs.

As he was forming his meatballs, Nelliel came to mind. He'd been doing that a lot since his talk with Sakura. He had trained extensively to the point of breaking every session he had with Sakura, but would it be enough? There was not a doubt in his mind that he had gotten stronger over the years after Nelliel's departure and even more so after meeting Sakura, but Nelliel was skilled with raw power to match. Should Sakura be right, and Nelliel came back through whatever upper power, will he even enough power to face her? Or will he lick dirt the moment she steps up to him.

"Hey," Sakura called out. "You're crushing your meatball".

"Heh?". He looks down at his hand and true to Sakura's words, he was balling his hand around a meatball, crushing it in between his palm and fingers. Cursing himself for the mishap and mess, he washes his hand, scowling all the while.

He had been doing that for a while now, Sakura noted. Zoning out that is. Not just in the kitchen, but in training as well. And she knew exactly who was on his mind. "You're worrying over nothing. Your power is great and ever increasing. If Nelliel is really as powerful as you made her out to be, you'll be a match for her by the time she walks into Las Noches".

Nnoitra wasn't surprised she knew. He appreciated the thought, but doubt still plagued him. "You never went up against her, nee-chan. With how easy she was able to take me out before, I'll need more than a few weeks to catch up her level. More like a century" he sighed.

There it was again; despair. It was a familiar sting he felt long ago, but never knew to label it. The despair that he won't ever be seen as an equal in the eyes the green-haired arrancar. That he'll forever be just a beast in her eyes. Maybe she was right. Maybe no matter how much he trained, no matter how much he self-reflected, he will always be Nnoitra Gilga - the unchangeable beast.

Without an warning, Sakura jumped and chopped the top of his head. When she landed, she simply said, "No one has ever moved up in the world while looking down" and she returned back to her dish.

Wincing as he rubs his head from the rather hard blow, Nnoitra then chuckles. "You can be oddly uplifting at times, ya know?"

"I'm your nee-chan. It's my job to lift you up when you're feeling down" she chuckled.

As the two continued on with their own dishes, new company showed up in the form of a little girl with short light-green hair. Her state of dress was quite revealing to say the least, consisting of white briefs with a black line in the middle, arm-warmers, a revealing vest, white thigh-highs, and black fur-lined boots. Her hollow hole was at the center of her stomach and her hollow mask fragment was helmet. The helmet covered her left eye with a flame design over the socket. It was asymmetrical in that the left horn appeared to be cut off while the right wasn't.