Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 103 - Szayelaporro

Wayne and Timd passed through the jungle's camouflage and stepped inside the Light Screen. A massive castle rose before them. At the gate, dozens of Adjuchas-level Menos Grande and six low-tier Vasto Lorde-class Menos Grande stood waiting to receive them.

"Quite the welcoming committee." Wayne stepped forward, putting himself between Timd and the crowd.

"Intruder. Leave. Or die."

"Why do all the Hollows in the Central Region open with that exact line." Wayne scratched his head. "Tell Szayelaporro that the King of Hueco Mundo — Skull Emperor Baraggan — has sent someone to call."

"Skull Emperor?" A Vasto-level Menos Grande at the front stepped forward. "Rumor has it Skull Emperor Baraggan is a mid-class Vasto Lorde, on equal footing with our lord. On what basis does he call himself King of Hueco Mundo?"

"...Fine." Wayne let out a sigh. He hadn't expected Baraggan's title to carry so little weight here. How exactly had Baraggan gotten Szayelaporro to submit back in the day?

"Tell your lord that the Lord of the Far West, Ace Wayne, has come to pay a visit. And this is a gift for him." He tossed the small Reiatsu Detection Radar Timd had built toward the distant Vasto-level Menos Grande.

"This is..." The Vasto-level Menos Grande probed it briefly, sensed no danger, and caught it. It stared at the device for a long moment, puzzled, then decided not to press the matter. Something this strange was probably only going to make sense to their lord.

"One moment." It turned and disappeared into the castle.

"We're in." Wayne smiled, making no show of impatience, and spent the wait looking the castle over.

Calling it minimalist was being generous. It was really just a building stacked from stone, though perhaps Szayelaporro had a rock-type Hollow Beast in his service as well. The castle walls looked as though a single enormous slab had simply been set in place, not a seam anywhere. He couldn't tell whether it was an exceptionally fine renovation job on Szayelaporro's part, or whether the rock-type ability here far outstripped what Mude could do back in his own forces.

"Hopefully this cooperation goes smoothly," Wayne murmured to himself.

He didn't have to wait long. Barely half a moment later, the messenger returned. "My lord invites you inside."

"Much appreciated." Wayne nodded. So his technology had earned Szayelaporro's interest, enough to get them through the door.

Honestly, Wayne had come here without much worry. At this point, the only real threat was Szayelaporro's bizarre abilities; everyone else here was incapable of holding him. As for Timd, the one standing beside him was a clone. Losing him would only mean a slight dip in Reiatsu. In other words, as long as Wayne didn't end up on the receiving end of one of Szayelaporro's strange curses, things would be manageable. And beyond that, Szayelaporro was a scientist at heart, and an arrogant one. If Wayne wanted, he could exploit that arrogance to land a single devastating assassination strike and take him out of the fight before he could respond.

Wayne also knew that every Hollow Beast Szayelaporro had ever created functioned as a recovery agent for him. So the moment things turned hostile, his first move would be to banish Szayelaporro's body into Alternate Space, denying him any chance to regenerate. Finishing Szayelaporro instantly, that way, was not out of the question.

Of course, staying on good terms with him was still the better play. Wayne needed Szayelaporro's help filling out his technology tree.

Following the Vasto-level Menos Grande inside, Wayne got another surprise. The castle's interior was done in Western European antiquity, intricate patterns carved into every wall down to the finest detail. Proof enough that Szayelaporro had been human in a past life. A different era and culture from Wayne's, and different from Timd's as well.

They arrived at the great hall deep within the castle. Rows of pods lined the space, resembling Bio-chambers. Inside them, complete or half-formed Hollow Beasts floated suspended in fluid, the remnants of Szayelaporro's experiments.

At the far end of the hall stood an enormous desk covered entirely in bizarre experimental apparatus: beakers and flasks, instruments of every kind that Wayne recognized from his previous life. There were also devices that resembled computers, continuously streaming data and equations across screens mounted above the desk. On the other side, several monitors displayed the current subjects of ongoing experiments.

And before that desk stood a humanoid Hollow Beast. His lower body was like an octopus, covered in tentacles. Four fleshy wings grew from his back, shaped like fruit hanging from a vine.

Szayelaporro. He sat at the desk with his back to Wayne, tinkering with something in his hands. Through the gaps between his enormous wings, Wayne could make out scattered components. In the few minutes since the radar had been sent in, Szayelaporro had already taken it apart.

"My lord. The visitor has been brought."

"Leave." Szayelaporro's voice was flat, his full attention on the components in front of him.

"But, my lord..." The Vasto-level Menos Grande hesitated. Their lord was facing away from a potential threat. If it left now, he could be caught off guard in an instant.

"I said, leave!"

His voice sharpened. The Vasto-level had broken his concentration.

"...Yes, my lord."

The guide withdrew. Wayne made no move to interrupt either. He'd been human in a new era, he knew exactly how maddening it was to be disturbed mid-focus. For someone like Szayelaporro, a mad scientist in both lives, it would be even worse.

Timd settled quietly to one side. He had his own confidence when it came to his research and inventions. True, he came from a chemistry background and Wayne kept putting physics work in front of him, but that hadn't stopped this man with unlimited clones from learning at an unlimited pace.

By now, Timd could fluently integrate everything Wayne had brought him. Hundreds of clones studying simultaneously, then pooling all of it back into one, it was like partitioning a main server into specialized drives. The consolidation always left Timd with a splitting headache for several days, but that kind of efficiency was worth more to him than anything else.

The minutes passed.

Finally, Szayelaporro set down his work, leaned back, and stretched out a long, luxurious yawn. All four wings spread wide with the motion. He was genuinely tired.

"3 hours, 42 minutes, 15 seconds. Research complete." He murmured to himself, glancing at the timer beside him.

"Impressive. It's been quite a long time since anything appeared that took me this long to study. The two of you are not bad." The arrogance in his voice was thick.

He had every right to it. That radar was something Timd had spent weeks calibrating to completion, not counting the studying that came before. Szayelaporro had gone from disassembly to analysis to reassembly in under four hours. That kind of execution speed was something else.

"Though I suspect you didn't come all this way just to kill my time." Szayelaporro began pacing toward Wayne, tossing the radar back to him as he went.

"Of course not. We're here to make a deal." Wayne kept it direct. For a scientist, every minute mattered. Even in a place like Hueco Mundo, where time seemed to stretch on without end, that was no excuse for a madman like this to waste a single second.

"A deal? Over this?" Szayelaporro turned the radar over in his hands, then tossed it back to Wayne again.

"I've lost interest. If that's all you have, you can see yourselves out." He had no intention of spending time and energy on something he'd already solved.

"That's far from all we have." Wayne patted Timd on the shoulder, a signal to get ready. "We come with two purposes. First: technology sharing. We exchange what we have with what you have, teach each other, and discuss our research and findings together. Second: we need you to enter a strategic alliance with us and help us take down Susbus. Once it's done, whether you want Vasto-level resources or the Ancient Hollow Beast, you pick first."

"Oh?" A flicker of amusement crossed Szayelaporro's eyes. "I've been locked in a three-way standoff with Susbus and Saros for decades, with no winner yet. And now you — a single low-tier Vasto Lorde — believe you can help me finish Susbus off?"

"My own strength alone might not be enough. But add Skull Emperor Baraggan to that, and things change."

"Baraggan?" Szayelaporro's expression shifted to mild puzzlement, though it was clear he already knew the name well. "What's that old fellow doing here? Instead of properly studying his own abilities and building his power, he spends every day playing king with a pack of lowlifes. Since when does he have the generous spirit to come fight someone else's battles?"

"This time, the Skull Emperor came to expand his territory. Susbus and Saros are already enemies — obstacles in our path."

"And am I not an enemy?" Szayelaporro asked, with some curiosity.

"You can be. But you don't have to be." Wayne kept his tone even. "If you agree, we open mutual access to technology and resources, establish a baseline strategic cooperation, and then talk about the war afterward."

"Hmph. Technology I can crack in three hours holds no interest for me." One of his great wings gave an idle flap, a gesture of mild displeasure.

"As I said, what we have goes far beyond this. But if you want us to bring out more, you'll need to show some sincerity in return, not probe us the moment we walk in the door." The words landed, and Wayne's Reiatsu surged. Waves of pale-gold light spiraled out around him, scattering every mote of dust Szayelaporro had just set drifting.

"Oh? Not bad at all. My Probing Scale Powder is colorless, odorless, it rides the air and can stay airborne for over a hundred meters without settling. And you caught even that."

"If you want to cooperate, show us sincerity. If you don't, we leave. There's no need for pointless tests."

"Omoshiroi." Something shifted in Szayelaporro's expression, the look of a man who had just spotted prey that genuinely interested him. He licked his lips.

"Let me show you something first. My masterpiece: Hollow Beast Modification." He swept a hand. In the Cultivation Tanks beside him, a red pillar of light and a blue pillar of light blazed to life simultaneously. Two Hollow Beasts materialized inside: a rotund, alien-shaped creature, and a gorilla-form Hollow Beast with heavily disproportionate limbs. Then both were instantly shredded, their Reishi churning through the green culture fluid in roiling waves.

Szayelaporro's wings shifted, and a stream of purple liquid sprayed from them, flowing down the grooves of the Cultivation Tank and pouring inside. The two masses of green fluid merged with the purple, then began moving through a connecting tube into a separate, empty Cultivation Tank behind.

The fluid, now dyed a deep emerald, began pooling and combining. The Reishi reconstituted. A single rotund Hollow Beast with thick, powerful limbs took form within the tank.

"That's not modification," Timd said, watching the experiment through to its end and brushing a hand across his Hollow Mask. "That's fusion."

"Ignorant!" Szayelaporro scoffed. "This is no simple fusion. This is a miraculous modification, capable of perfectly merging the power of two Hollow Beasts into one. One hundred percent."

"Interesting." Wayne's attention sharpened. "Explain."

"That alien Hollow's ability was Elastic Body. The gorilla's was Strength Amplification. When both of those abilities manifest simultaneously in a single Hollow Beast, what do you get?"

"...Gear Fourth Luffy?" Wayne thought about it for a second and muttered.

"Hah?" Szayelaporro clearly hadn't caught the reference. "This is an ability fusion. On top of the elastic defense the body now carries, it gains the additional power of strength amplification."

"But their forms changed too." Timd pressed the point. "With two Hollow Beasts merged into one, which one is the dominant body?"

"Hmm..." Szayelaporro's eyes narrowed slightly. "The creatures I modify, their consciousness is naturally under my control."

"So that purple liquid you sprayed has more than one function. It handles the fusion, duplicates the abilities, and compels obedience, all at once. Is that right?"

"Naturally." Szayelaporro gave a grand wave of his hand. The freshly fused Hollow Beast leaped out of the Cultivation Tank and bolted for the exit. "My modification doesn't just merge two Hollow Beasts' abilities, it also boosts their Reiatsu. The better to serve me. What use do I have for something that won't obey?"

"What's the ceiling?" Timd asked.

"What ceiling?"

"The ceiling on the enhancement. Take two low-tier Adjuchas-class Hollow Beasts, after modification, can their Reiatsu reach double the original? And where does it cap? Vasto Lorde? Higher, King Hollow? Or even..."

"Impossible!" Szayelaporro, completely absorbed in the thrill of his modification work, had never once bothered to think about a ceiling. And besides, he himself was only a mid-class Vasto Lorde. How could he possibly have modified something stronger than himself?

➤ Next: Cooperation Reached — Words Unspoken