Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 78 - Baraggan — The Conversation

The thunderous strike landed, and Wayne used the spatial mark on Nel's body as a coordinate to pull himself back. By the time he returned, the giant Hollow's mask was already in his hand.

Below Vasto Lorde level, their ambush was practically unsolvable. But an opening like that only worked once, from the second attempt onward, the enemy would be wary, and the effect would suffer. Not that it mattered. Wayne and Nel's raw strength was right there. Even in a straight head-on fight, Wayne wasn't worried.

"Nothing but dogs on Baraggan's leash. Who gave you permission to act this arrogant?" He tossed the mask to Jekain. At this stage, one or two peak Adjuchas masks weren't enough to push him further. So Wayne decided to use the time before his departure to bulk up his side, the stronger the foundation he left behind, the easier he could leave with his mind at ease.

"The rest of you — who speaks for the group?"

"You — how dare you insult His Majesty!" The surviving Adjuchas began raising their Reiatsu. In truth, though, they were rattled. Their leader had been one-shotted. That kind of power meant the two of them alone could probably take on the whole group, never mind the high-level Adjuchas standing behind them.

"Baraggan is nothing more than a Vasto Lorde-class Hollow," Wayne said evenly. "Not exactly something worth cowering over. Besides, I only need one guide. Kiriyamera already took that role. You've lost your chance." He paused. "That said, I still need someone to verify the directions she gave me. So — first one to talk gets to live."

The words were barely out before Wayne moved. Nel, Jekain, and three other high-level Adjuchas surged forward behind him.

A high-level Adjuchas battle erupted on the spot.

In an instant, Reiatsu and Ceros lit up the sky.

Below Nel's tier, each of Wayne's fighters picked a target. Nel held down two. Wayne took three while keeping tabs on the whole field.

His spatial teleportation was the linchpin. Every enemy high-level Adjuchas had one of his spatial marks on them. Any time he chose, he could blink into any fight on the field. With his Reiatsu, a single sneak attack was enough to deal serious damage, and once the target was staggered, his Adjuchas would pile on and finish the job.

The moment the fighting started, Wayne hammered three high-level Adjuchas with a burst of Reiatsu, then activated concealment and spatial manipulation at the same time. Invisible Ceros began threading through the battlefield. The enemy had no idea where the attacks were coming from. One moment of distraction and Wayne's fighters were on them, cutting them down. It happened again and again. They grew twitchy, hesitant, flinching at empty air, no idea how to counter something they couldn't see.

SPLAT!

One high-level Adjuchas finally couldn't take it. Wayne's blade carved into its neck, and blood erupted like a burst pipe. It dropped straight out of the sky.

The pressure on Wayne's side evaporated instantly. The battle tipped.

One fewer opponent meant his Adjuchas could stack numbers. One-on-one was a stalemate. Two-on-one was a stomp. Throw in Wayne's free-roaming ambushes and the enemy formation collapsed fast.

Holding three at once had taken a real toll on his Reiatsu, and that was before factoring in the constant ability usage to keep the whole field under control.

Fortunate the enemy only had eight high-level Adjuchas. A few more and he'd have been pulling mid-level fighters forward just to keep things from falling apart.

His side had held firm quickly enough to lock the enemy down and give him the openings he needed. If the fight had dragged much longer, even Wayne would have started to feel the strain. No matter, that's what Nel was there for. When his Reiatsu dipped, she'd take the front.

One Adjuchas down. Then a second. Then a third.

All eight high-level Adjuchas crumbled under Wayne's total field control, flattened and unable to rise.

"I'll ask one more time." Wayne touched down and quietly caught his breath. "I need a guide. First one to speak gets a chance to walk away."

"..."

None of them answered. Whether they were too beaten to speak or something else entirely, not one of them opened their mouth.

"...I respect your loyalty." After a long silence, Wayne let it go. "Pity that loyalty isn't mine."

He turned and paced slowly toward the stronghold.

"...Reap."

SPLAT!

At his word, several high-level Adjuchas dropped onto the fallen enemies and devoured them whole.

Back at the stronghold, Wayne settled onto the throne to rest. Before long, Nel padded over with a piece of high-level Adjuchas mask in her mouth and laid it at his side.

"My lord, you seem a little unhappy," Nel said, curling up on the pile of hay beside the throne.

"No. Just feeling sorry for myself about still being this weak." Wayne let the thought spiral.

"If I were at Vasto Lorde level, could I have wiped out all those Hollows on my own?"

"My lord, you're already at peak Adjuchas combat strength," Nel said, nestling down.

"Ah. True." Wayne reached over and rested his hand on her back, absently stroking the fur along her spine.

"Still doesn't feel like enough." He closed his eyes.

He had roughly ten years. He had to reach Vasto Lorde level before then. Trying to take down Aizen at Adjuchas strength wasn't going to cut it. The ambush approach had merit, but Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tōsen weren't window dressing. They moved in tight coordination with Aizen, the instant Wayne struck, they would counter to drive him off. That meant controlling the other two first.

With his current strength, Nel could hold Gin. But Tōsen still needed someone of equal caliber to pin him down.

And Tōsen was no slouch. His power was enough to directly suppress Arrancar-form Grimmjow, that said plenty about how strong they were.

Adjuchas wasn't the ceiling. He needed Vasto Lorde or above. Top-tier Vasto Lorde strength to suppress Aizen.

In the manga, Starrk joined Aizen because only Aizen could help him rein in his scattered Reiatsu, let him exist around others without destroying them.

Without that, Starrk had the strength to fight Aizen to a standstill.

As long as he wasn't put under Kyōka Suigetsu.

From a low-level Hollow all the way to peak Adjuchas, that had taken over ten years. What came next would be harder still. He had to push faster.

"Nel, I'm leaving things in your hands. Hold the stronghold."

After a long quiet, Wayne spoke. "I'll be back within one to two years. I'm hoping the stronghold has a few more peak Adjuchas by then."

"Yes, my lord." Nel sat up, her tone going serious. "Are you leaving now?"

"Mm. Sooner the better." Wayne picked up the mask Nel had brought and bit into it.

"Time isn't waiting. The Caterpillar Fungus should be recovered enough by now. The earlier I move, the safer the stronghold stays." He rose from the throne.

"Tell Timd he has one year to fully crack the communication device. I want to see this place looking different when I come back." With that, Wayne walked straight out of the assembly hall toward the prison cells.

When he arrived, Kiriyamera was still lying on the cell floor. The prolonged interrogation had wrung her dry. Mentally, she wasn't in much better shape.

"Kiriyamera. Time to go." Wayne nodded to the high-level Adjuchas on guard at the door.

"M... my lord." Kiriyamera still looked utterly wrecked. "It hasn't... even been two months."

"Stop playing dead. I'm in a hurry." Wayne grabbed her by the wing and started hauling her out. "Keep it up and I'll make it permanent. Move."

He opened a Garganta right there in the cell and threw her in.

"You two — let Jekain know." Before stepping through, Wayne turned to the two combat-ready high-level Adjuchas guarding the hostage. "Jekain first, then yourselves. Two years to reach peak Adjuchas. When I'm back, I'll take you to conquer half of Hueco Mundo."

"We humbly obey our king's command!" Both Hollows accepted the order with reverence. For them, it was an opportunity, a chance to become something more. Wayne's generosity had caught them off guard.

He stepped into the Garganta, Kiriyamera in tow, and set off toward Baraggan's territory.

According to Miss Caterpillar Fungus, Baraggan's territory was a long way from Wayne's. The reason he had come all this way looking for trouble was simple: the previous messenger, Utland Silu, had gone dark, his Reiatsu trace had stopped moving.

In Hueco Mundo's vast expanse, there was no shortage of Hollows capable of killing a messenger. But Baraggan, who considered himself the master of Las Noches, would not tolerate any Hollow in Hueco Mundo refusing to bow to his rule.

Whenever a messenger died, whenever a Reiatsu trace went still, Baraggan dispatched more subordinates to investigate. Second wave wiped out? There'd be a third. A fourth. He kept sending until he deemed the matter worth handling himself.

There was no entertainment in Hueco Mundo. Slaughter, pursuit, and massacre were the only pastimes.

Baraggan didn't care about his subordinates dying. He'd even have them kill each other for his amusement.

None of that repulsed Wayne. Every strong being had their own nature, their own way of surviving. That wasn't his place to judge. But he had his own way, and he intended to carve out his place in Hueco Mundo by it.

Kiriyamera hadn't lied. Most of what she'd said lined up with what Wayne already knew from the manga. Las Noches's exact location was still a blank, but her descriptions were detailed enough. They'd hold.

Navigating the Garganta wasn't straightforward, but Wayne stepped out periodically to get his bearings, checking for the landmarks and terrain features Caterpillar Fungus had described.

Traveling that way, stepping in, stepping out, course-correcting, it took the better part of a year before Wayne finally reached the edge of Baraggan Louisenbairn's core territory.

"Lord Wayne, this is it — Baraggan's core territory. Follow that mountain range straight ahead and you'll reach Baraggan His Maj—... Baraggan's palace."

"Mm. You've worked hard these past six months." Wayne gave a small nod. "Per our agreement — you're free. Just don't go back into Baraggan's territory. The consequences are yours to deal with."

"I wouldn't dare." Kiriyamera retreated a few wary steps. Neither Wayne's strength nor Baraggan's Decay Power was anything she could survive.

"I'll leave this region. I won't cause you any trouble, my lord."

"Good. Go. Keep yourself alive." A brief farewell, then Wayne turned and left in a flash of Sonído.

"What a strange lord." Kiriyamera watched the direction he had gone, drew herself in, then turned and disappeared into a Garganta.

This was Baraggan's territory. The Reiatsu mark on her body hadn't been erased yet. She could easily be found and killed. The Garganta was the only sensible way out.

Wayne didn't spare a thought for where she'd gone. He was already inside Baraggan's territory, "core territory" meaning, in practical terms, he was now within the detection range of Baraggan's sensor-type subordinates.

He didn't care. He'd come to talk with Baraggan. If Baraggan wanted a fight instead, Wayne didn't mind ending things here.

That wasn't a boast. His abilities were a near-perfect counter to Baraggan's.

Learned, as it happened, from the Grand Kidō Chief of the Visored.

He hadn't gone far before several Hollows stepped into his path.

"Who goes there!"

"I'm here to see Baraggan. Pass the message along."

"Insolence! How dare you speak His Majesty's name like that!"

"What the hell is wrong with these things..." Wayne's brow furrowed behind his mask. What kind of devotion did every single one of them have toward Baraggan? Just saying the name and they were losing their minds.

"Does running an errand offend you that much? Fine, don't go. Someone else will." His Reiatsu detonated. The full force of a peak Adjuchas crashed down and sent the mid-level Adjuchas stumbling back on their heels.

Wayne closed the gap in an instant and raked his claws across the throat of the one who'd been mouthing off. He caught the head as it fell.

"Next. Who else wants to die?" His rage was cold and clean. Reiatsu flaring, he turned toward the nearest Hollow.

"I, I'll go report it!" The one about to get choke-slammed blurted the words out fast. By the time Wayne stopped, his right claw was already resting at its throat. Reiatsu pressed in, sharp and precise, the Hollow's Hierro offered nothing. Blood welled slowly from each puncture point, and the sweat came just as fast.

"No tricks. Take me straight there." Wayne slapped a spatial mark onto it, then drew the Sky-Rending Greatsword with his left hand and set the blade against its neck.

"Y-Yes... yes..." The edge was right there. The Hollow barely breathed. It led Wayne toward the palace one careful step at a time.

Not far now. A few minutes and Wayne was standing before the great hall entrance. In those few minutes, dozens of Adjuchas had closed in around him.

He wasn't bothered. Before entering the territory, he'd already seeded spatial marks on the outer stone pillars. One thought and he could be gone. No need to worry about getting trapped.

But before he could take another step, a crushing pressure settled over him, and right behind it, the smell of death.

Baraggan's Decay Power. Respira.

Black flames of rot surged toward him. Wayne sidestepped with a spatial flash, but the Hollow he'd been using as a shield wasn't so lucky. The death flames hit it dead-on and stripped it to a skeleton in seconds. It screamed as it dissolved into nothing.

"Hmph!"

A deep, contemptuous snort rolled out from inside the hall. The palace doors swung open.

The palace, such as it was, amounted to walls and a gate. No ceiling.

For Baraggan, the entire sky was his ceiling.

"What sort of ant crawls into my palace uninvited?" In the center of the open doorway sat a massive Hollow, a skull face, hollow eye sockets, no flesh anywhere on him. That bone structure might well have been his mask in its entirety.

He wore a billowing black-purple cloak that moved without wind, writhing around him like a living extension of his Respira. A crown gleamed on his head, marking his claim to sovereignty. At his right hand stood a giant double-bladed axe, motionless and imperious, like a silent sentinel.

"Ace Wayne." Wayne stepped around the last traces of the Respira and came to a stop before Baraggan. "Emperor Baraggan. An honor."

"Hmph. You trespass in my territory, harm my subordinates, and then you tell me it's an honor?" Baraggan's contempt was unhurried. "I don't know what you came here for, but you owe me a reckoning for my subordinates. I sensed Kiriyamera's Reiatsu mark on the approach. She guided you here, didn't she? That means the messengers I sent to the western region, you're the one who killed them."

"A few subordinates, nothing more. I trust the Emperor's character runs deeper than that." Wayne threw out the flattery like a jab.

"Ridiculous. A mere ant, daring to speak to me of character?" Another wave of Respira launched at Wayne.

Wayne was already moving. A spatial flash pulled him clear of the blast and left a clone standing in his place. His real body was already airborne, high above. His left hand shaped the Sky-Rending Greatsword and sent it spinning toward the left side of Baraggan's throne.

"I came here to propose a deal. I've heard the Emperor's Decay Power can corrode anything in existence, and seeing it firsthand, it lives up to the name." He kept talking while he moved, weaving between bursts of Respira. "That power is exactly what interests me."

"An ant's standing, what gives you any right to propose a deal to this king?" Baraggan's pressure swelled, and the Respira spread wider.

"An ordinary Adjuchas, nothing." Wayne accelerated his spatial flashing across the ground, scattering spatial marks everywhere he landed and layering his Concealment Field over each one. "But I'm a little different. Hear me out first, then decide."

"An ant is an ant. If you want to discuss a deal with this king, first survive this king's, " Baraggan stopped mid-sentence.

Wayne was gone.

When Baraggan's gaze swept to find him, a greatsword was already hovering inches from his face, and Wayne was standing on his throne. Above Baraggan's head, a charged pale-gold Cero swirled and gathered, the energy dense and building. One suspicious move and it would come down through his skull.

It wouldn't kill him. Baraggan's Respira could decay energy attacks. But that wasn't the point.

"Emperor." Wayne's voice, from right beside him, was flat. The Cero burned hot against the air above. "I think we've established we can have a conversation now."

The death power Baraggan had been about to unleash went still.

"You..." Baraggan's skull turned toward Wayne. He wasn't afraid of the Cero overhead. A peak Adjuchas Cero would sting at worst. The damage was minimal. The indignity was not. "You have a very unusual ability."

"Spatial manipulation." Wayne dropped off the throne and flashed back to a marked position. "I can transfer matter, transfer positions, and transfer abilities themselves. Anything that carries material energy, I can move it. Including Your Majesty's Respira."

"Ridiculous. You think this king fears his own power?"

"Your surface has a natural buffer. Of course you don't fear it from the outside." Wayne let the pause sit. "But what if I transferred it inside you?"

"Mm..." A low sound from Baraggan. A few words, and Wayne had laid bare every gap in his defenses.

"Feel free to test me with Respira, by the way. See what happens." He could say that without blinking. He'd already mastered pseudo-void, as long as Baraggan's ability range didn't blanket the whole area, he could become functionally untouchable. Once he completed his self-contained space, pseudo-void would become a true void state. At that point, unless he was hit in both spaces at once, he couldn't be touched.

"Enough." Baraggan let it go. "Ace Wayne. This king acknowledges that even in your ant-like state, you have earned the right to speak with me."

"I'm grateful." Wayne let the Cero dissolve.

"Ace Wayne. Present your deal. If this king finds it worth considering, I may see fit to overlook the matter of my slain subordinates." Baraggan had sat over Hueco Mundo for ages, sovereign to every Hollow beneath him. Lowering himself before Wayne simply wasn't in his nature, and nothing about his bearing suggested otherwise.

"Emperor — do you remember the Vasto Lorde-class lord to the north? Rod Folles."

"Hmph!" The name hit like a spark. Baraggan's Reiatsu surged. "So you're his envoy."

"Not at all." Wayne raised a hand. "I've heard he and the Emperor have never seen eye to eye. That you've tried to eliminate him more than once, and failed each time."

"..." Baraggan was silent for a long moment before answering. "That creature's life force is not weak. His ultra-rapid regeneration is among the finest in Hueco Mundo. This king's Decay Power cannot finish him off."

"Does the Emperor know where the core of his ability lies?"

"Ultra-high-speed regeneration. Healing. Even when this king corrodes his head entirely, he doesn't die. A new one simply grows back."

"But what if the Emperor's ability were combined with mine?"

"...Oh?"

➤ Next: Rod Folles