South Korea was nice at such a point in the year. It was summer, and the entire country had a sort of Mediterranean climate. Hotaru stood at an open old meadow. woody shrubs and green sapplings were scattered throughout the area, though not enough to get in the way of anyone's sight. A city could be seen in the distance, and flowing from it, was a rushing river. Not far from the meadow was a beach. The sun was rising over the horizon. Far above, the only relief from the hot sun were a bunch of clouds, floating like cotton balls thrown into a cup of water.

Hotaru was here on a sort of exchange program. It seemed strange for any Japanese person to be in Korea, especially for what has happened, but the where the culture is rich, one can't help but visit. Hotaru found the secluded meadow, after hopping a fence into it, needing some time for himself- he didn't like small cramped places.

Strangely enough, the Seireitei was okay with Hotaru's "vacation". Although there wasn't too much hollow activity where he was, they told him to keep a vigil. Strangely enough, there have been alot of arrancar lately- Hotaru had already fought two of them so far.

Rebecca's travels brought her into the Dangai realm; a mess of reishi she navigated through with a disk like saucer beneath her feet gliding her towards the other end of her Garganta. With her were none of her Fraccion, at the moment she had the intent on taking on a Shinigami. The power her Shinigami opponent had was a mystery to her as well as his lethality, but soon enough it would become apparent as the end of the Garganta ripped open within the sky.

Rebecca emerged and was met with the strong rays of the sun. There were no clouds in the sky; the worst type of weather there is. She simply wore her default Arrancar uniform; a suit similar to a one piece bathing suit cut open in the front to appear quite revealing. Her blonde hair hung on her left side so that on the side of her right breast the number 8 was revealed. She hovered in the sky with her Pequisia open fully in an attempt to find her opponent. Finally she did, he had found a semi-large field, it was the perfect place for a melee scuffle.

The field her opponent occupied was close to 200 yards away, her arrival would easily be seen so she moved fast and used a sonido to close the gap between the two to a mere 30 feet as she stood at the edge of the meadow looking towards her opponent. Rebecca had a blank expression on her face but on the inside; her soul was shaking.

As a portal tore open in the sky, Hotaru simply watched intently, knowing exactly what was going to happen. Well, not exactly- he just knew he was going to have to fight something. Out through the black portal, came the physique of a woman. Hotaru had never seen any female hollows before- then again, it wasn't very easy to tell their genders apart especially since they are hell on killing and eating everything that moves. Because of how humanoid it is, this must either be an arrancar. A closer look reveals that it has a number on its chest- the number eight.

The last two arrancar didn't have numbers- not as far as he knew. They just had holes and fragments. This one seemed tricky, it had a fragment, a number, and four holes. Obviously, it was flying closer, perhaps noticing Hotaru's distinctive reiatsu. Mojo wasn't around- Hotaru left him in the care of his friends. This time, Hotaru had to leave his body behind, using his substitute badge to enter his shinigami form. Removing the badge from his pocket, he punched it, sending his soul outside his body.

Hotaru unsheathed his zanpakuto, Namidasuke, from his left side. Its silvery blade and golden ring shaped tsuba glowed in the sunlight. The groove of the blade left distorted reflections over the grass, the tear drop motif on the tsuba doing the exact opposite. Rather than waiting for his opponent to get to him, he used his shunpo- an under-developed one, but a shunpo, sending him straight up into the air, creating a loud sonic boom which shook the meadow below. Regardless of being in a fight, Hotaru wou;dn't hit a girl- not even a monstrous one- not without it hitting him first. "Hey! What's a pretty lady like you doing here?" Hotaru shouted to the female arrancar.