Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 56 - The Unexpected One

A mid-level Adjuchas dropped, and another stood exposed before Wayne.

"So then — what about you?" Wayne tossed the corpse aside without bothering to strip its Hollow Mask, and turned his gaze toward the next prey.

"I — I surrender!" The Hollow beast dropped to its knees and retracted its Negación.

"Good. And the last one?" Wayne didn't spare the kneeling Hollow a second glance. He looked past it, toward the final mid-level Adjuchas, Atak's adjutant.

"Not a chance! I will protect Lord Atak with my life!" The adjutant drove his Reiatsu to its limit and charged. He was a beast-type Hollow built like a wild bull, thundering on all fours with murder in his eyes. Just before impact, he funneled every last drop of Reiatsu into the spike on his forehead, his strongest technique, aimed to shatter Wayne in one blow.

BOOM!

Spike met blade. Wayne manifested the Sky-Rending Greatsword, flooded it with Reiatsu, and took the hit dead-on. The shockwave ripped through the surrounding sand, spraying blood and grit in every direction. The ground cracked apart beneath the force.

At full strength, that charge might have pushed Wayne back, especially after releasing the Zero Storm had already bled him. But the adjutant's Reiatsu had been heavily depleted long before this moment, nowhere near seventy or eighty percent of his peak. Wayne absorbed the impact without much effort.

"Kovodis, Timd! Attack him!" The adjutant, his blow blocked, strained to shout at the two Hollow beasts still kneeling nearby. "If the three of us combine our strength, we can get Lord Atak out of here!"

"On it!" Kovodis saw Wayne pinned in place and turned on his master without hesitation. He let out a furious roar and launched himself forward. The spines along his back blazed with light. His entire body curled inward and began spinning at high speed as he hurtled toward Wayne.

CLANG!

The impact shook the forest. A curtain of golden light erupted at Wayne's side, catching Kovodis's attack and throwing it back.

A Negación, cast by Timd, from the far edge of the field. Aimed at Wayne.

"Timd! You traitor!" The adjutant, shoved back by the barrier, fired a dark-violet Cero straight at Timd.

"My lord, save me!" Timd yanked the Negación back and bolted. He hadn't even learned Sonído. Facing a mid-level Cero with nothing between him and it, his eyes were full of nothing but fear.

BOOM!

The Cero hit. Smoke and dust erupted outward. But inside that cloud, Wayne already had one hand clamped around Timd, his other arm thrust forward, catching the blast that had been aimed to kill him.

"Your loyalty. I felt it." Wayne set Timd down, then Sonído'd toward Kovodis.

CLANG!

The barrier rose again. This time Kovodis had cast the Negación, and again it was directed at Wayne. The same trick Wayne had used back in his Gillian days, seal the enemy inside a Negación and lock them in place.

"My lord, take Lord Atak and run — I'll hold him here!" His ambush had failed. Kovodis knew what that meant. He gave what was left to give.

"Lord Atak, let's go, AAAGH!" The adjutant had barely turned to flee when one of his legs went dead beneath him. He watched his own foreleg spin through the air, and then a spray of crimson hit him across the face.

Wayne had already flashed past. The Sky-Rending Greatsword completed a single rotation and drove itself through the adjutant's throat, pinning him flat against the ground.

"Impossible?!" Kovodis spun to check the Negación he had cast. It was empty. No one inside.

"This can't be! How can someone escape from inside a Negación?!"

"The Negación's original property is to carve out a separate pocket dimension and shield whoever is inside from harm." Wayne settled unhurriedly onto the adjutant's broad back and pressed the greatsword down, flattening the beast again as it tried to fight back.

"As it happens, my ability is spatial. Moving from one set of coordinates to another is about as easy as it gets. That, incidentally, is exactly what my Sonído does. So trying to trap me in a Negación, that's a bit of a reach."

"You — damn you!" Kovodis erupted his Reiatsu and made one last charge.

HUM!

An invisible Cero fired from directly in front of Wayne and struck Kovodis square on his Hollow Mask. The crack of shattering mask followed a beat later.

"I forgot to mention, my second ability is Concealment." Wayne's voice was even. His hand was not. His right arm swept upward, and one Sky-Rending Slash split Kovodis's skull clean in two.

"Game over." Wayne drove his left hand down. The Sky-Rending Greatsword punched through the adjutant's throat and out the other side. The adjutant stopped moving.

"Your name is Timd, correct?" With the fighting done, Wayne stripped the adjutant's Hollow Mask. His gaze drifted toward Atak in the distance, gravely wounded, unprotected, barely holding together, but the question was aimed at the low-tier Adjuchas crouched nearby.

"Y-yes, my lord." Timd said nothing else. He knelt on one knee and stayed there.

"Go kill whatever Adjuchas are still breathing nearby. Bring me their Hollow Masks."

"Y-yes." Timd saw that Wayne had no intention of killing him and broke into a trot. He moved through what remained of the battlefield, ending lives one by one, enemies, and former companions alike.

"Atak. Let's talk." Wayne Sonído'd to Atak's side and let the greatsword fall in front of his face.

"Hah... hah..." Atak was still gasping. The Cero that had punched through him earlier had done serious damage, gutting his Reiatsu by a wide margin. He couldn't ignite his power again even if he wanted to.

"Nothing left to say. If you're killing me, kill me." He knew he wasn't walking away. He'd made his peace with it. His voice came out harder for it.

"No need to be in such a rush." Wayne smiled faintly. "Let's talk first. Maybe there's still a way out."

"Hmph. You say that like you'd actually let me go." The gaze behind Atak's Hollow Mask was tight and searching. He hadn't worked out what Wayne actually wanted. "I know your face. You're one of Yinfeng's people, aren't you?"

"Good memory." Wayne didn't seem bothered by being questioned first.

"So, back when Gatmont was still Great Lord, the one quietly killing Adjuchas from other factions. That was you."

"Mm. Not entirely dim."

"But I don't understand. Your Reiatsu is already well above Yinfeng's. Why would you still lower yourself to serving under, "

"That's exactly why I am the king." Wayne cut him off. "From the very beginning, I was Yinfeng's king. From back when I was still... a lower Hollow."

"What?" Atak's expression flickered, then steadied. "No wonder. No wonder you kept yourself hidden from everyone. So, was it you who killed Yilao? Gascard? Varta?"

"Mm. All of them." Wayne nodded. "Back when I was still a Gillian, I came here to feed. It was here, by chance, that I ran into Jekain again, the one you all called Yinfeng.

"Every step after that was planned. Assassinating Isrut. Picking off Adjuchas across every territory. Stoking conflict. Setting the trap that made Yinfeng take the blade meant for Gatmont. Earning their trust. Then unraveling the forest from the inside out. Advising Gatmont until I had built enough of my own power to expand it directly. All of it, mine."

"You planned that far ahead." Atak's voice was quiet. He wasn't dismissing it.

"Of course. The Central Forest is just a stepping stone. One day I'll stand at the top of the Forest of Menos, and then climb higher from there."

"Heh." Something in Atak seemed to release. "No wonder a combat-type Hollow like you stayed in the Forest of Menos instead of heading straight for the inner ring. Losing to you, I can accept that." He paused. "But why tell me any of this?"

"Because of what I'm about to ask." Wayne said it plainly. "You were once human, weren't you? Are you willing to join my side?"

"Hmm?" Atak's expression went blank. "What are you talking about?"

Wayne paused. Atak hadn't reacted at all to the word human. "You... weren't you turned from a human?"

"Turned from a human? What does that even mean?" As he spoke, Atak was already trying to push himself upright, his intent obvious. The rest had done its work. Aside from the wound in his chest, his Reiatsu had clawed back a fair amount.

"That's not right." Wayne reached up and scratched the back of his head through his Hollow Mask, then brought the Sky-Rending Greatsword down onto Atak and pressed him flat before he could stand.

"If you're not a turned human, how do you know how to use a Negación? And that Single-File Dragon Formation you mentioned earlier, I've never seen either of those anywhere in Hueco Mundo."

"Heh. That's all you wanted to ask." Atak scoffed, gave up on resistance, and settled back against the ground. "Someone told me."

"Oh?" Wayne's expression shifted. "Who?" He paused. "...Actually, forget it. Probably a pointless question. I already killed them just now, didn't I?" He turned back to look at the wreckage he'd left behind.

He hadn't held back at all. From the start, he had been certain Atak was the one who had once been human, his entire plan had been to leave Atak alive and question him alone. Two beings who had both crossed over from the human world, he had expected they would have a great deal to talk about. Instead, he'd been completely wrong. He might have already cut down the one person he could have had a real conversation with.

"No, my lord. They're still alive." Wayne was still turning it over when Timd appeared nearby, arms full of Hollow Masks. "Those things he knew, I was the one who taught him."

"What?" Wayne stared. "You?"

"Yes, my lord." Timd's voice barely rose above a murmur. "I... I'm the one who was turned from a human."

➤ Next: The Weak