Kenpachi Zaraki vs. Nnoitra Gilga

 is a battle taking place during the Invasion of Hueco Mundo, focusing on the conflict between 11th Division Captain Kenpachi Zaraki and Espada #5. Nnoitra Gilga after the former interrupts the latter's fight against Ichigo Kurosaki and Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck.

Prelude
During her battle against Nnoitra Gilga, Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck suddenly reverts to her child form in a burst of energy that completely dissipates her Resurrección, Gamuza, to the shock of those watching. Seizing upon this, Nnoitra stomps on a confused Nel's head, laughs maniacally, and proclaims that she is finished. Nel is kicked hard in the stomach by Nnoitra, sending her hurtling limply several meters across the sands, and when Ichigo Kurosaki frantically rushes after her, Nnoitra grabs him by the head and slams him face-first into the sands as he asserts that they are all doomed because Nel was their last hope while transformed.

When Nnoitra tells him to take over here and do as he wishes with Ichigo and his friends since they are as good as dead, Tesra Lindocruz releases Orihime Inoue, who is immediately grabbed by Nnoitra, and activates his Resurrección, Verruga, transforming him into a massive and heavily muscled boar-like warrior. With a stunned Ichigo staring at him, Tesra deliberately places his right hoof over Ichigo's left leg and stomps it down, breaking Ichigo's leg at the ankle and causing him to scream in pain. Upon seeing this, Orihime calls out to Ichigo in concern, but is cut off when Nnoitra shoves two of his fingers into her mouth and tells her to watch quietly because her supposed savior is about to be reduced to chunks of meat.

Tesra continues brutalizing Ichigo with powerful punches as Orihime watches with tears in her eyes. When Tesra holds Ichigo aloft by the head and sees defiance in the latter's eyes, he takes Ichigo's right wrist between his fingers and snaps it in two with his index finger, prompting Ichigo to howl in agony prior to being thrown several meters away by Tesra. With Nnoitra musing that Ichigo is finished and Orihime panicking internally, Tesra walks over to Ichigo and attempts to finish him off with a downward punch. However, Ichigo is left astonished when the blow is intercepted and a voice observes that he looks like he is on the verge of death as 11th Division Captain Kenpachi Zaraki stands before him with his Zanpakutō blocking Tesra's fist. With a stunned Ichigo wondering if it is really him, Zaraki wonders if the beating Ichigo received scrambled his brains.

Upon seeing Zaraki, Nnoitra immediately throws aside Orihime and kneels down to perform Indice Radar on Zaraki, only to be left alarmed by what he senses. Pulling his fist back from Zaraki's Zanpakutō, Tesra questions who Zaraki is, and when Zaraki remains silent, Tesra decides to simply kill him if he is not going to answer and attacks Zaraki, but Nnoitra frantically warns him to run instead just before Zaraki cuts diagonally through him in a single slash, severing his fist in the process. After Tesra's two halves fall to the ground, Zaraki calmly wonders who is next and turns to Nnoitra, whom he infers is his next opponent. When Ichigo asks him why he is here since Soul Society was supposed to be staying out of this fight, Zaraki simply kicks Ichigo away to get him out of the way, to his and Orihime's unnerved surprise, and reveals that Kisuke Urahara was ordered by Captain-Commander Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto to stabilize the Garganta and secure a safe route to Hueco Mundo for the captains at the beginning of the conflict against Aizen.

After Zaraki notes that Urahara was confident he could finish the three-month plan in one month and that this was only hindered by Orihime being abducted, 11th Division Lieutenant Yachiru Kusajishi pops out of his haori and concludes that Zaraki has come now that the route has been secured, leaving an annoyed Zaraki to complain about his promise of being able to handle this alone being left unheeded since they also sent 12th Division Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi, 6th Division Captain Byakuya Kuchiki, and 4th Division Captain Retsu Unohana with him. Following this, Nnoitra attacks Zaraki, who blocks the former's Zanpakutō with his own and observes that it took him long enough, and the two fiercely introduce themselves to each other.

Battle
Shortly afterward, Zaraki clashes with Nnoitra as both grin fiercely. Nearby, Orihime rushes to Ichigo's side, and when Ichigo begins pleading with her, Orihime moves to heal him, but Ichigo insists that she tend to Nel first, which she runs off to do after a moment's hesitation over the clash nearby. Moments later, Nnoitra is slashed down the chest by Zaraki's Zanpakutō, though his Hierro protects him from being cut and causes the blade to simply grind across his skin, allowing Nnoitra to leap back unharmed and cut through Zaraki's shoulder with his own Zanpakutō before reiterating that his Hierro is the strongest of all the Espada and cannot be cut by the sword of a mere Shinigami, leaving Ichigo and Orihime concerned. Continuing to battle Zaraki, Nnoitra is pressed back prior to being launched into the air by an upward slash from the former.

However, a grinning Nnoitra grabs his Zanpakutō by the chain attached to the end of the handle and begins spinning it rapidly above his head, generating a strong whirlwind around him, before throwing the Zanpakutō blade-first down at Zaraki, who sidesteps it while it embeds itself in the sands, jams his own Zanpakutō blade-first into the sand as well, and grabs a link of the chain to roughly pull Nnoitra down to him, culminating in Zaraki grabbing Nnoitra by the head and slamming him on his back into the sands, where he grabs his Zanpakutō once more and stabs it down at Nnoitra's head. In response, Nnoitra frantically moves his head out of the blade's path at the last second and frees himself from Zaraki's grasp to move several meters back.

Upon seeing this, Zaraki muses that Nnoitra would not have dodged it if he were not afraid of it and reiterate Nnoitra's proclamation that the sword of a mere Shinigami cannot cut his skin as he asserts that Nnoitra must have a vulnerable spot. Leaping high into the air, a scoffing Nnoitra claims that it is merely instinct to evade an attack and that nothing will change Zaraki's blade being useless against him prior to slamming his Zanpakutō down onto Zaraki, kicking up a large cloud of sand in the process. Suddenly, Zaraki recalls people like Nnoitra in Soul Society who said he would not be able to cut them, and as the sand clears to reveal him holding Nnoitra's Zanpakutō back by the blade, Zaraki concludes that he has never met anyone whose eyeballs and throat could stand up to steel while thrusting his Zanpakutō through Nnoitra's eyepatch and out the back of his head.

With Ichigo and Orihime watching this in shock, Zaraki stands with Nnoitra hanging off his Zanpakutō, but is alarmed when Nnoitra glares down at him, maniacally declares that Zaraki still cannot cut him, and thrusts his right hand into Zaraki's chest, drawing a large amount of blood. After pulling his right hand out of Zaraki's chest and grabbing the latter's Zanpakutō with his left hand, Nnoitra infers that Zaraki is struggling to understand how someone can survive a sword through the head and pulls his eyepatch aside with the tip of Zaraki's Zanpakutō to reveal both his Hollow hole and his mask fragments where his left eye would be. As he lets go of Zaraki's Zanpakutō, Nnoitra confirms that no one can survive a sword through the head and clarifies that Zaraki's blade simply passed through his head rather than piercing it before haughtily concluding that Zaraki has met his match.

However, Zaraki merely grins at this, and when Nnoitra angrily attempts to kick him in the chest while demanding to know why he is laughing, Zaraki grabs his leg before it can make contact and admits that he is too happy to stop himself from laughing. With Nnoitra confused by this, Zaraki explains that there would be no fun in cutting up Nnoitra if it would not kill him and releases the latter's leg as he concludes that knowing Nnoitra will die if cut is all he needs to know and rushes forward while declaring that he is going to enjoy cutting up Nnoitra, prompting the latter to proclaim that he cannot possibly do so. Zaraki begins rapidly clashing with Nnoitra, who is pushed back across the sands by the force of his attacks.

Eventually, Zaraki exploits an opening to slash his Zanpakutō down at Nnoitra's left side. Upon blocking the blade with his left forearm, Nnoitra is startled to see it cut into his skin and draw blood, which leads him to repel Zaraki with a wave of his arm in irritation. Though Nnoitra licks the blood from his wound and claims that this was a fluke which Zaraki should not be proud of, Zaraki stares at his Zanpakutō and performs a practice swing with it to his right side before sharply jerking his arm up, blowing away the sand next to him in the process with the generated wind force.

When Zaraki invites Nnoitra to come at him once more, Nnoitra angrily delivers a powerful downward strike of his Zanpakutō from the air, but Zaraki blocks it with his own Zanpakutō, which severs one of the tips of Nnoitra's Zanpakutō alongside slashing horizontally across his face. Standing opposite Nnoitra, Zaraki observes that he is finally getting used to Nnoitra's Hierro and details how he has not fought in so long that he had forgotten to keep his muscles loosened up as he thanks Nnoitra for the warm-up, which he follows with a powerful thrust of his Zanpakutō at Nnoitra's head. Narrowly sidestepping this, Nnoitra attempts to attack Zaraki once more, but the latter intercepts him with an upward slash to Nnoitra's left shoulder, causing him to fire a Cero from the tip of his outstretched tongue in frustration. In response, Zaraki casually grabs the Cero with his right hand and throws it aside, causing it to detonate in the sands behind him.

After standing bewildered for several seconds, Nnoitra furiously rushes toward Zaraki and attempts to stab the latter with his hand once more. However, Nnoitra's hand instead catches on and rips off a grinning Zaraki's eyepatch, revealing his fully intact eye underneath, and a stunned Nnoitra is slashed down the length of his body by Zaraki as the latter's Reiatsu surges. With a large amount of blood spattering the sand nearby and dripping from his Zanpakutō, Zaraki stands apart from Nnoitra, who has been cut vertically down the left side of his body, and reaches up with his hand to feel the area over his right eye. Upon realizing that his eyepatch was cut off, Zaraki attributes his inability to control his strength to Nnoitra doing this, and when a panting Nnoitra questions what the eyepatch is, Zaraki explains that it is a seal he uses to contain his Reiatsu so his battles last longer.

As Zaraki questions if Nnoitra still standing after that attack means he is alive or just on his last breath, Nnoitra denies such an attack or Zaraki's Zanpakutō being able to kill him and proclaims that he is never going to die before activating his Resurrección, Santa Teresa. The release kicks up a massive cloud of sand around Nnoitra, where Zaraki sees a crescent moon silhouette within, before clearing to reveal Nnoitra, who has gained an unequally-sized pair of horns on his head, two additional arms connected to his shoulders, thick armor covering his arms and torso, and a large scythe with a lengthy, lopsided blade in each hand, with the large wound inflicted by Zaraki to his torso healed and closed up as well.

Despite this, when Nnoitra asks him how it feels to see an Espada's release for the first time, Zaraki grins widely and praises this sensation because it feels like Nnoitra's Reiatsu is sharpening his own Zanpakutō. In turn, Nnoitra demands that Zaraki try to cut him with this sharpened sword, causing Zaraki to rush forward and slash downward at Nnoitra. However, Zaraki is startled when Nnoitra easily blocks his slash with one of his scythes, wonders if this is all Zaraki has got, and slices another scythe diagonally across Zaraki's chest, sending him flying back to land motionless on the sand with blood spraying from his wound while Nnoitra mocks this swing as feeble. With Ichigo and Orihime watching in shock and concern alongside Yachiru, who is perched atop a broken and tilted pillar, Zaraki lies motionless in the sands with a large gash running diagonally along his chest before Nnoitra. Upon realizing that Zaraki is not even twitching, Nnoitra assumes that he has died.

Nnoitra turns his attention to Ichigo, Orihime, and Yachiru, whom he decides to kill next. In response to Nnoitra approaching them, Orihime runs toward Yachiru, and when Ichigo tries to stop her by reaching out his hand, he is repelled by the interior of her Sōten Kisshun surrounding him, leaving him startled at her Shun Shun Rikka being powerful enough to push him back. Meanwhile, Orihime shields Yachiru with Santen Kesshun, only for Nnoitra to disparage it and raise one of his scythes in preparation for destroying it. However, Yachiru merely points at the area behind Nnoitra and tells him that he should look behind himself just before Nnoitra experiences a monstrous and intense Reiatsu enveloping him in the shape of a demonic skull. Turning around in alarm at this, Nnoitra has his upper right arm severed and leaps several meters back while the arm spins through the air and is impaled on the Zanpakutō of Zaraki, who stands before Nnoitra, tosses the arm away, and notes that this is one down.

As Nnoitra curses him, Yachiru claims that Zaraki gets mad when people attack her, though Zaraki denies being mad. When Nnoitra accuses him of cheating by pretending to be dead, Zaraki counters that he was just musing on how Nnoitra's ability to always block his attacks with an extra arm made the battle unfun and asserts that he could not think of a clever way to prevent that, which is why he will instead be cutting off Nnoitra's arms one by one. While Yachiru points out that Nnoitra cannot fight without any arms, which Zaraki acknowledges as he decides to leave him with one instead, a bemused Nnoitra wonders if Zaraki is insane and calls this the stupidest thing he has ever heard prior to declaring that this is the last arm Zaraki will take from him, regrowing his severed arm with High-Speed Regeneration, and clarifying that it is the last thing Zaraki will ever take from anyone.

After proclaiming that he is going to slice Zaraki to death with four arms because the latter is weaker than he is, Nnoitra lunges forward and begins clashing rapidly and fiercely with Zaraki, which eventually culminates in Nnoitra sending Zaraki flying several meters back with enough force to shatter the side of a tall building that he crashes into. With Nnoitra claiming that he can knock Zaraki around like a feather because the latter is so light and complaining that this makes it harder to kill the latter, whose intention of running away he questions, Zaraki kicks his foot out of the rubble, which an approaching Nnoitra narrowly dodges, and grabs Nnoitra by the head to slam him on his back before bringing his Zanpakutō down in a powerful slash, forcing Nnoitra to block with all four scythes at once. Zaraki sees Nnoitra struggling to hold him back and wonders if the latter is done already.

However, Zaraki is interrupted when Nnoitra thrusts a third left arm through his side and out of his back, covering it and the sand behind Zaraki with blood. Reiterating that Zaraki is not taking any more of his arms, Nnoitra pulls his arm out of Zaraki, revealing he has grown out a third right arm beneath the other two as well, and concludes he will be killing Zaraki with all six of his arms, leaving Zaraki to cough up blood. As Ichigo and Orihime express fright at the sight of his third set of arms, Nnoitra holds out his bottom left wrist, which generates a scythe for that hand to wield, and informs Zaraki that it is over. Despite this, Zaraki begins laughing maniacally and claims he loves this because he is finally even with Nnoitra now that he has holes in his body as well. Grabbing his Zanpakutō, Zaraki invites an unnerved Nnoitra to continue this and slashes his Zanpakutō horizontally at Nnoitra, who ducks down, leaving the blade to cut through a large chunk of rubble behind him.

Nnoitra slices one of his scythes through Zaraki's left shoulder, only for the latter to continue grinning and bring his Zanpakutō crashing down onto Nnoitra. Upon blocking this with another scythe, a struggling Nnoitra kicks Zaraki in the side with his left leg, pushing him several meters to the side, before lunging toward him again. After Zaraki narrowly evades a scythe aimed at his head, which only scratches his cheek, and thrusts his Zanpakutō at Nnoitra's in turn, Nnoitra runs up the wall of the broken building that Zaraki crashed into earlier and slashes diagonally through the top, causing a massive chunk of it to slide off and fall onto Zaraki, who simply sticks his Zanpakutō into the side and flicks it, causing the entire chunk to split and crumble into large pieces around him.

From above the falling rubble, Nnoitra comes down on Zaraki with all six of his scythes and resumes their fierce clash while frantically wondering how Zaraki can possibly be fighting back when he has been cut more and is bleeding worse than Nnoitra has and is, which causes him to demand that Zaraki stop annoying him and die already prior to slashing his scythes at Zaraki's left shoulder once more, this time cutting open the side of his neck as well. Upon putting a hand over his neck wound, Zaraki realizes that he really is going to die if he keeps this up and notes that he does not want to die.

As Yachiru stares at him, Zaraki decides to use kendō, and with Nnoitra confused by this, Zaraki explains that Yamamoto made him practice it for a while after he joined the Gotei 13, though he did not find it appealing and disliked the name implying it was the proper way of swordsmanship, only to admit he did learn one thing which made sense to him. Zaraki bluntly informs Nnoitra that a sword is more powerful when swung with both hands, and when an incredulous Nnoitra proclaims this is obvious and rushes toward Zaraki with his scythes outstretched, Zaraki infers that Nnoitra does not understand just how much stronger it is, grips his Zanpakutō's handle with his left hand, and performs Ryōdan, a powerful downward slash.

Charging furiously toward Zaraki and preparing to attack, Nnoitra is stopped in his tracks when Ryōdan cuts through him along his left side and kicks up a huge plume of sand as it travels across the desert. With the sand falling back down around him, Zaraki stands with both hands on his Zanpakutō and expresses amazement at Nnoitra still being alive upon seeing the latter on his hands and knees, having had all three of his left hands severed and with a huge gash running down the left side of his body. After admitting that Nnoitra is tougher than he expected, Zaraki turns around and bids Nnoitra farewell, prompting a startled Nnoitra to demand that Zaraki come back because this fight is not yet over.

Though Zaraki asserts that this is the end of their battle since he is under no obligation to finish off an opponent who cannot fight back, Nnoitra counters that the battle really is not over in this case and gets to his feet, with two of his right hands wielding scythes and the third clutching his left shoulder, while claiming that he can still fight. Upon seeing Zaraki remain silent at this, Nnoitra angrily questions if the former is afraid of him and orders Zaraki to say something, only for a grinning Zaraki to express annoyance at this and decide to grant Nnoitra's request just before Nnoitra lunges toward him and prepares to attack. After recalling his past with Nelliel and ruminating on his inferiority complex compelling him to prove himself superior through violence, Nnoitra is slashed across the chest once more by Zaraki in a blow that severs two of his right hands, causing Nnoitra to fall to his knees with a blissful smile as blood spurts from his wounds. When he looks at a resting Nel nearby, Nnoitra sees her recognize him by name, falls over, and dies.

Aftermath
Tesra sheds a single tear while he lies dying on the sands and looks at Nnoitra, who lies dead before Zaraki as the latter praises his performance in their battle. After ripping off his tattered haori, Zaraki walks over to a concerned Ichigo, shocks him and Orihime by shattering the Sōten Kisshun surrounding him with a single stomp, and flings Ichigo several meters away with a single hand. Once Ichigo lands on the sands and angrily demands to know what he is doing, Zaraki tells him to pick up his sword, which lies behind Ichigo, and get out of here with Orihime because his job is done and the rest can be left to Zaraki. Though Ichigo protests that he cannot quit now, Zaraki reminds him that he is a Substitute Shinigami tasked with protecting Karakura Town, which means he should be satisfied with saving Orihime.

Suddenly, as Zaraki demands that Orihime heal his injuries and as she moves to do so, Coyote Starrk appears before Orihime with Sonído, alarming those present, and apologetically admits he does not like such things before asserting that he needs to take Orihime with him. Though Ichigo and Zaraki immediately lunge toward him, Starrk disappears with Orihime just before their Zanpakutō slam into the area where he was standing, which leaves Ichigo dumbfounded. Meanwhile, a terrified Orihime stands before Aizen, Gin Ichimaru, and Kaname Tōsen while Aizen welcomes her back and observes she is wearing a pained expression, causing him to move to her, place his hand on her cheek, and softly request that she smile since they all get sad when the sky darkens and she merely needs to wait here for a little while until they wipe out Karakura Town, with a Garganta opening to display the town behind him.