Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 41 - Jekain Once More

Five years had passed since the Forest of Menos War. In those five years, Wayne had climbed step by step from entry-level Gillian to entry-level Adjuchas. The most dangerous battle along the way was his standoff with the Lord of the Northern Forest. But crossing paths with that great sandworm of the Northern Forest again, that was at least another five years out. Wayne wasn't in any rush on that front. The pressing question right now was how to accumulate enough strength to stand against the north.

His original plan had been simple: go to the Central Forest to advance, then build his faction from the ground up, slow and steady. But he hadn't expected the Adjuchas-class of the Central Forest's core region to mobilize so quickly and start hunting him. Even less expected was finding Jekain there, his old friend, now one of the Lords.

That discovery changed everything. If he already had someone inside the enemy's circle, why build from scratch? Let Jekain work as a mole, feed him intelligence, and once Wayne returned to the Central Forest, he could start cutting down these Lords one by one and swap out the entire power structure.

A few days later, Wayne and Nel were back at the Central Forest.

"Hah..." The moment they reached the outer edge, Wayne drew a long, slow breath. "As expected. The Reishi here is so much denser. Even breathing feels easier."

"They say the inner circle's Reishi activity is even higher than the Forest of Menos," Nel replied. "My lord, once we've finished our business here, let's go experience it together~"

"We have five years. Before that, we need to cut out this tumor." Wayne began suppressing his Reiatsu. "Nel, wait here. I'm going to find Jekain. According to his earlier intel, there's a Hollow in the core Lords' circle with extremely powerful detection abilities. I need to deal with him first."

"Lord Wayne, do you need my help?"

"No. My ability set is made for this kind of work. Stay hidden here. Once I've taken out that sensory-type Hollow, we'll head to Jekain's territory together and start building our faction."

"Yes, my lord."

Wayne concealed his form and vanished into the air. Nel tried to probe for his Reiatsu, and in that single instant, his presence was simply gone. She'd wanted to extend her perception to a wider range, but she couldn't. Activating wide-range detection would broadcast her own position to every Adjuchas-class in the Central Forest's core. They couldn't afford to be found. Not yet.

"Ah... Lord Wayne after his advancement really is something else." She caught herself going starry-eyed, shook her head, and slipped away to a quiet corner of the forest. She suppressed her Reiatsu, tucked herself out of sight, and waited.

Meanwhile, Wayne was moving fast. With his Reiatsu sealed away, he shot through the trees on Sonído. Sonído was spatial movement by nature, and since Wayne's second ability trait was space, his Sonído ran far faster than any average Adjuchas, covering distances others couldn't match. With his concealment sealing his Reiatsu on top of that, he cut through the Forest of Menos like a ghost. Soundless. Traceless.

When he needed to recover, he'd find a stray Gillian, land without a sound on its shoulders, raise his right claw, and take its head in one clean stroke. Eat the Hollow Mask. Brief Reiatsu replenishment. Move on. By the half-day mark, he'd reached the territory he and Jekain had agreed on, a resource zone Jekain controlled.

Finding a Lord within his own territory was easy. All it took was a little noise.

Wayne raised his left hand slowly. At the tip of his left index finger, a pale-gold Cero condensed into shape.

BOOM!

The surrounding air detonated. A large tree nearby exploded into splinters.

The roars of Menos Grande tore through the sky. The Gillians shrieked and scattered, desperate to flee the area. Then several Adjuchas-class Reiatsu surged upward and came rushing toward him, and among them, one carried a flavor Wayne recognized.

Jekain.

Sonído fired beneath his feet. Wayne moved toward it. Within seconds, he was standing in front of Jekain.

"Jekain." The sudden appearance made Jekain flinch, but the familiar voice was enough. He knew immediately who it was.

"My King? It's you? You completed your advancement?" Jekain stepped closer, confirming what he was seeing.

"Yeah." Wayne rolled his shoulder. "Ended up looking like this afterward. I feel like I'm on a completely different level from before." He gave Jekain a quick rundown of where things stood.

"I'm glad you came back safely," Jekain said with a respectful dip of his head.

"Everything went smoothly." Wayne nodded, then felt it. Four more Adjuchas-class Reiatsu, closing in fast. He shifted into a ready stance without thinking.

"My King, stand down. Those four are mine," Jekain said, gesturing for him to relax. "I haven't been sitting still while you were gone." The four Adjuchas landed around them a moment later. Eight eyes, all locked on Wayne with open suspicion.

"My lord, this one is..." One of the humanoid Hollows stepped forward and addressed Jekain.

"A friend of mine. Wayne." Jekain kept the real explanation to himself. Dropping a King on them out of nowhere wasn't a conversation worth having right now. They'd followed Jekain. The only thing that would earn their loyalty was strength, not titles.

"You remember what I told you," Jekain said, turning to his four subordinates. "That one day, we would end the Great Lord Gatmont's rule and stand as kings ourselves. That day is coming."

"We swear eternal loyalty to Lord Yinfeng." Four voices, in unison. Four Hollows dropping to one knee.

While Wayne had spent the year advancing, Jekain had put his time to use. Following Wayne's orders, he had systematically investigated every Adjuchas in the Central Forest, abilities, ranks, threat levels. A year wasn't enough to map all of them, but he'd built up close to sixty percent of the picture. That included the abilities of the core thirty-six Lords and the Great Lord himself. The lower-tier subordinates were a secondary concern. Beyond intelligence, he'd also been building. The four entry-level Adjuchas kneeling before them were his, recruited, tested, loyal.

"Let's skip ahead," Wayne said. "The longer we wait, the more can go wrong. Right now, the only Adjuchas-class with the range to survey the entire Forest of Menos — that's still just that sensory-type Hollow beast you mentioned before? Isrut?"

"Correct. No one else's detection ability even comes close," Jekain said. "Isrut is mid-level Adjuchas. Humanoid Hollow, ancient in appearance — his body looks like a great tree, his mask like a tree's crown. His ability is wide-range Reiatsu detection. He can cover the entire Forest of Menos. The farther the target, the more Reiatsu they need to release before he can lock onto them — at range, a suppressed signature will slip past him.

Beyond detection, he also has a Mental Shock ability, but it's unremarkable. The Cero you just fired will have shown up on his radar, but the Reiatsu signature is different from what he'd know of you, so he won't know who you are. With five Adjuchas-class on my side clustered together, he'll probably assume a newly advanced Adjuchas appeared in my territory — and that the five of us are trying to recruit them."

"Does he have subordinate officers guarding him?"

"None. He lives on the lower level of the Central Tree, directly beneath the Great Lord's chambers. He doesn't need his own guards. On top of that, there are around a dozen Adjuchas-class Menos Grande living in the area surrounding the Central Tree. Moving against him won't be easy."

"What are his combat capabilities?"

"He's old. Weak strength, slow movement. A support-type Hollow like him has always needed others to protect him. And he seems to have been stagnant at this level for a very long time, no sign of any progress." Jekain let the implication hang. Every Hollow had a ceiling. Isrut had probably hit his.

"And the Great Lord?"

"High-level Adjuchas. One step from the peak." Jekain's eyes narrowed beneath his mask. "Name is Gatmont. Humanoid Hollow with a tail. His offensive methods are shoulder-mounted Reiatsu Cannons and a tail hammer. The Reiatsu Cannons fire twin-barreled Cero, twice the intensity and twice the speed of a standard Cero. The tail hammer handles close range. Both arms are thick and heavily built, no claws." Jekain laid out the data piece by piece.

"Gatmont apparently met Isrut back when he was still entry-level Adjuchas. They've moved together ever since. Between Isrut's detection range and their combined ability to read threats early, they slipped through countless attempts on their lives in the Forest of Menos and made it to where they are today. The two of them are close."

"The guards?"

"Distributed around the Central Tree. Mostly entry-level and mid-level Adjuchas-class Menos Grande. None of them are built for combat, their roles lean toward alert and tracking."

"Understood." Wayne nodded after a moment.

"It's because of that tight net around the Central Tree that we've had no opening to force our way in," Jekain said, shaking his head. He knew better than anyone how much that living radar had cost him. It was the reason he'd only managed to bring four Adjuchas into his camp over an entire year. Without Isrut, he'd have moved freely. With him, every covert move was a gamble.

"Don't worry about it. I'll handle him. You all stay here." Wayne concealed his form and his Reiatsu and disappeared from in front of all five of them. The Adjuchas stood there, frozen. Not a single trace left to detect. Not one flicker of Reiatsu.

How?

Less than three hours later, a furious roar tore out from deep within the forest. Gatmont's Reiatsu hit the trees like a shockwave, and for a moment the whole forest shuddered.

Then Wayne walked back into Jekain's territory, Isrut's severed head in one hand and his Hollow Mask in the other. Easy. Unhurried.

"Done." He dropped the head at Jekain's feet and bit into the Hollow Mask himself. "Post men here to hold the position. Get ready to answer the Great Lord's summons. I'm going to bring Nel."

"This... Yes."

➤ Next: Falling Apart