Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 118 - Volume 3: The Soul Society's Flowing Souls

[Volume 3: The Soul Society's Flowing Souls]

Chapter 118: The Reishi System

Chapter One Hundred and Eighteen

Before Momo Hinamori's eyes, her big brother descended like a divine soldier, appearing suddenly out of nowhere. With nothing but a watermelon knife, he had subdued a Hollow beast. In her field of vision, her big brother was half-kneeling on the Hollow's skull, one foot pinning down its head, the other pressing against its Hollow Mask, wrenching at it with all his strength to tear it free.

The Hollow beast beneath him writhed, trying to throw him off, but the agonizing pain kept it from rising.

Blood poured out through the crack between the mask and the skull, quickly soaking into the sand beneath his feet and spreading into a wide, red-stained pool.

"SHRAAAAK!" The fish-headed Hollow beast wailed in agony. This was nothing like being cut down by a Zanpakutō, where it would swiftly crumble to dust, this was its mask being torn away by brute force, a pain beyond all comparison. In the end, it would be just like dying in Hueco Mundo: its body would collapse to the ground and gradually dissolve into Reishi.

Wayne's feet did not let up. His Reiatsu was faint, but when he channeled every last bit of it into the watermelon knife in his hand, its cutting edge was sharp enough to open the flesh of this lower-ranking Hollow beast.

Decades of warfare in Hueco Mundo had given Wayne a wealth of combat experience. In a single instant he had found the precise point on the Hollow beast where it could not gather strength to strike back. He drove the blade straight into that weakness and tore open its mask.

Once the mask was gone, the Hollow beast's Reiatsu would collapse in an instant. It would not take long before its power fell catastrophically. Even Wayne himself, at his current reduced state, had lost power at a tremendous rate, and this creature was a lower-ranked Hollow, so its strength would drain away in no more than ten seconds or so.

Soon, the beast lost every trace of the vitality it had shown at the start. The writhing body gradually slowed to a series of twitches, and finally, with one last whimper, it stopped breathing altogether.

"Momo, are you all right?" Wayne kicked the Hollow beast beneath him a few more times, and once it no longer responded, he jumped down to the ground and moved to help Momo, who had fallen and was sitting on the sand.

"B — Big brother." Momo was still trembling with shock, her eyes not yet fully focused.

"It's all right, Momo. It's over. It's over." Wayne helped her up and reached around to rub her back soothingly.

"Big brother... wuu... WAAAH!" Gradually, Momo's senses came back to her. Tears had been circling in her eyes, and now they broke free in a single sob.

"There, there. It's over. It's all over." Wayne murmured softly to comfort her, while his gaze shifted to Shiro-chan lying unconscious nearby. Shiro-chan was gifted beyond measure, but at this stage his Reiatsu was not yet enough to stand against a Hollow beast. Perhaps if given another two years — once he awakened Hyorinmaru, he would surpass Momo in one leap and become a captain-level existence. Of course, that would be before his Bankai reached full maturity, so at most it would count as half a captain.

Having confirmed that Shiro-chan's breathing was steady, Wayne set him aside for the moment and turned his attention back to comforting Momo.

The fear that had been inflicted on Momo by the Hollow beast's attack just now was no small thing. That kind of psychological wound would leave a mark even on someone as innocent and pure-hearted as Momo. A gentle, patient approach was the answer. In the future, Momo would travel further and further down the path to becoming a Soul Reaper, and confronting fear was inevitable. One day she would have to face Hollow beasts on her own, only then could she grow.

"Big brother... I was so scared." After a long while, Momo's sobbing gradually faded to quiet hiccups.

"It's fine. It's fine. He's dead now." Wayne reached out and ruffled Momo's hair. "It's over. You're safe."

"Was that... did big brother kill it?" Momo looked back, still shaking slightly, at the Hollow beast that had gone still, its skull and mask partially torn apart, and shuddered.

"Yes." Wayne nodded. "Even though I'm blind, I can use Reiatsu perception to get a rough sense of the creature's shape. It won't affect my fighting."

"Is that so? Thank goodness..." The focus in Momo's eyes drifted, and moments later she went limp in Wayne's arms and lost consciousness.

The shock had been too much for her. First, it was the first time she had ever been attacked by a Hollow beast; second, the clash of the Hollow beast's Reiatsu against her own had quickly drained all the strength from this delicate girl.

Sensing that Momo had fallen unconscious, Wayne's brow furrowed slightly. He set Momo carefully to one side, then gathered Shiro-chan as well and placed him beside her.

He turned around. Wayne looked at the Hollow beast collapsed nearby. Gazing at the enormous mask, nearly a meter across, his expression grew heavy.

He thought it over for a long moment, then decided he would try.

He walked up to the Hollow's mask, carefully broke off a piece of it, and used the watermelon knife to shatter it into fragments no larger than a fingernail. Then Wayne swallowed, opened his mouth, and tossed that small piece of mask inside.

Hum!

The mask fragment dissolved into Reishi in an instant and surged into Wayne's body. But the Hollow beast's Reishi and the Reishi already inside Wayne were not from the same system at all. Though it was only a tiny amount, it set off a raging storm inside him.

"Ugh!" Wayne was wracked with pain as the Reishi churned through him. All the spiritual energy in his body rushed toward that small cluster of Reishi and crushed it in an instant.

"Hah... hah..." Wayne gasped for breath. That one tiny piece of mask had almost sent him into unconsciousness from the pain. He hastily checked the Reiatsu inside him and found that the Reishi within was gradually settling back to calm. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief.

"So it really is a system conflict, is that it?" Wayne's brow remained creased. He could not work out why a Hollow eating a Soul Reaper could absorb spiritual energy just fine, yet a Soul Reaper eating a Hollow's mask would cause this kind of agony. Did that mean the Reiatsu of a Hollow beast was on a higher level than a Soul Reaper's?

Wayne dismissed that idea. It was simply a difference in power systems, a hierarchy should not exist. Otherwise, Hueco Mundo could never have been conquered by Aizen so easily.

With that thought, Wayne's mind drifted back to the scene when Aizen had used the Hōgyoku to suppress him. The Hōgyoku had released an extraordinarily powerful Soul Reaper force, which had caused Wayne tremendous suffering as well, otherwise, Wayne should have absorbed the Reishi the same way he absorbed a Soul Reaper's and found it pleasurable.

"Could it be a matter of the ratio of one's own Reiatsu?" Wayne pondered. In the anime, when Aizen had used the various captains and lieutenants for his Hollowfication experiments, Shinji Hirako included, every last one of them had suffered tremendous agony and been robbed of their sanity. Yet after Urahara had rescued them, he had quickly helped them complete their Hollowfication, and they had successfully become the Visored. And the protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki had a Hollow's power inside him from birth, which was why he became a Visored, meaning Soul Reapers could in fact absorb Hollow Reiatsu, as long as the proportion was right.

Just now he himself had swallowed only a small piece of mask and was already in tremendous pain, yet he had not been immediately thrown into Hollowfication the way Shinji Hirako and the others had. Did that prove that this quantity was still within a range he could absorb and tolerate? In other words, once his own Reiatsu grew powerful enough, he would be able to absorb the Reiatsu of lower-ranked Hollow beasts?

"Does this count as me forging myself into a Visored army all on my own?" Wayne raised an eyebrow, and in the next moment he moved to break off another piece of the mask to try swallowing it. But before Wayne could act, he sensed two strong waves of Reiatsu approaching from behind, moving in his direction.

"Are those the patrol Soul Reapers?" Wayne gazed into the distance, then turned and looked back at the Hollow beast. He quickly broke off a large piece of the mask and hid it inside his clothing. "I'll leave the rest for them to deal with." With that thought, Wayne walked back over to where Momo and Shiro-chan lay.

"Hey... you there." Two Soul Reapers in Shihakushō arrived at Wayne's side shortly after. "Hey... why is there a Hollow beast here?" The two Soul Reapers stared in surprise at the Hollow beast's carcass on the ground. "Did you people kill it?"

"Are you Soul Reapers from the Gotei 13?" Wayne turned his head toward the two, the black strip of cloth over his eyes indicating he could not see, only sense vaguely. "Yes, I killed this Hollow beast." As he spoke, Wayne was sizing up the two members. Though their Reiatsu was considerably higher than his at this stage, if it actually came to a fight, he was confident he had a chance to take them both down based on experience alone. As long as they did not use Bakudō. In a pure blade exchange, Wayne would not necessarily lose.

"Ah, we're from the 10th Division, patrolling this area. We sensed a Hollow's presence and came to check." One of the two members stepped forward to examine the Hollow beast's body and found that this Hollow had been split open by a watermelon knife and had died from having its mask torn apart.

"That's a rare way to die. I've never seen a Hollow killed by anything other than a Zanpakutō before." The black-haired, blue-eyed Soul Reaper said. "This guy was really killed by a blind man like you?"

"Just luck." Wayne did not make a show of it. "Although I am blind, my hearing and perception are sharp. I can roughly gauge the Hollow beast's shape and Reiatsu. Combined with a fortunate stroke of luck, I struck a vital point and managed to kill it."

"Tsk, tsk, I have to say — you're one lucky guy." The black-haired Soul Reaper clicked his tongue quietly. "With your ability, you might end up in our Gotei 13 someday."

"I'll take that as a good omen. My little sister and I are in fact planning to apply for the next Soul Reaper selection examination."

"Ha ha, of course — with talent and ability like yours, you're sure to make it." The black-haired Soul Reaper gave Wayne an affirmative reply. "Do your best. When you pass the exam and enter Seireitei as a Soul Reaper, I'll put in a recommendation for a spot in our 10th Division for you."

"Is that so? Then thank you very much." Wayne did not sense any sincerity behind the words of this Soul Reaper who had not even bothered to give his name. Still, he accepted the offer with an extra word of agreement.

"Ha ha, no problem at all. Now then — the two children behind you look unharmed, so you take care of them. I'll handle this Hollow beast." With that, the black-haired Soul Reaper drew his Zanpakutō, released his Reiatsu, and drove the blade into the Hollow beast's mask. Swiftly, the Hollow beast dissolved into black particles and evaporated.

"So he wanted to steal the credit." Wayne grumbled to himself. But that was fine, actually, with the credit taken away, Wayne would not come to the attention of the Soul Reapers too early. He could stay low on his own for a few more months.

"Yoshi! That's that taken care of!" The black-haired Soul Reaper clapped his hands together. "Well then, we'll head back and report in. Be careful out there yourselves. Actually, you've already left the safe zone of the Rukongai district. You should head back soon — it's going to get dark before long, and the road won't be so easy to travel once that happens."

"Understood. Thank you, both of you." Wayne clasped his hands toward the two in a polite gesture and watched them leave. It was just like the cops in the movies back in the living world, only showing up once the case was already solved. But Wayne did not dwell on it. It had effectively helped him keep a low profile, in a roundabout way.

He let out a quiet sigh. Wayne hoisted Shiro-chan onto his back and secured him with his waist sash, then cradled Momo Hinamori in his arms. She began walking home. Along the way, Wayne also picked up the fish basket and hung it at his waist. After all, there were still two fish in there, he had gotten something out of the trip, and it would be a waste to leave them behind.

When they arrived home, Grandmother saw Wayne carrying both children back, one in his arms, one on his back, and though she was worried, she also let out a breath of relief. Wayne gave her a brief account of what had happened, keeping the details of the Hollow beast's appearance simplified. Only then did she truly set her mind at ease, though her eyes were still filled with concern for Shiro-chan and Momo.

"Grandmother, part of this is actually my fault. If I weren't about to sit the Shin'ō Academy entrance exam, Shiro-chan and Momo wouldn't have gone out specifically to find food for me, and they wouldn't have been attacked." Wayne broke into a cold sweat. If he hadn't arrived in time, might Momo and Shiro-chan have lost their lives to the Hollow beast, a storm stirred up by his own butterfly effect? If so, the Gotei 13 would have been missing one child-prodigy captain and one lieutenant.

"That's all right, little Tsukishiro. Grandmother doesn't blame you at all." Grandmother pressed her palm gently to the foreheads of Shiro-chan and Momo as they lay tucked under the bedding, her touch full of tenderness. "Who can ever say how these things will go? In the future, I won't let something like this hold back Shiro-chan and little Momo's growth. It's just... Grandmother hopes that in the years ahead, the three of you siblings will still be able to lean on each other and look after each other the way you do now."

"..." Hearing Grandmother's words, Wayne said nothing. He only gave a quiet nod. Supporting each other right now, that was certainly no problem. But the future... Wayne did not dare to make any promises.

"Oh, and Grandmother — even though Shiro-chan and Momo had a fright today, they did come back with something." Wayne pointed to the fish basket and the two green carp that had since gone still.

"Fish like this spoil quickly once they're dead. I think it would be better to prepare them now. The two children should wake up before long, and we can make something to help restore their strength."

"Mm, that's true." Grandmother thought it over. The two children had been frightened, but they had come home safely in the end, and with something to show for it too, it would be a shame to let it go to waste. "In that case, leave preparing the fish to Grandmother. Little Tsukishiro, go to the backyard and pick a couple of watermelons, then run to the night market and exchange them for some rice and sweet red beans."

"Ah, sure." Wayne nodded. Wayne was aware that a currency called Kan existed in the Rukongai, but he rarely saw Grandmother bring it out to use, she dealt almost entirely in barter. Perhaps in the Rukongai, food held more value than currency. That was probably why Grandmother seldom had Shiro-chan and Momo go out to sell watermelons at a stall.

A plump, crisp watermelon, in the eyes of the poor, that was as good as gold. At Shiro-chan and Momo's age and with their inexperience, they would likely end up having it stolen or snatched away.

P.S.: Overtime is exhausting, and writing code at night after overtime is even more exhausting. Taking Friday off to be lazy. Will update again on Saturday.

➤ Next: Night into the Forest