Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 119 - Night into the Forest

Chapter One Hundred and Nineteen

Just as Wayne had predicted, Shiro-chan and Momo stirred awake in the early hours before dawn. The shock had passed, but the fear still lingered on their faces. Under Granny and Wayne's watchful eyes, the two children tucked into their late dinner without a care in the world.

The two bluefish were divided evenly into four portions, salt-baked, served alongside sweet natto over white rice, plus a miso soup Wayne had sweet-talked the shop owner into parting with, made from scrap tofu and soy sauce. The family of four ate well. Thoroughly satisfied.

"See, Big Brother? You really do have a gift for fighting." Even mid-bite, Momo was singing his praises. "A Hollow like that, and you took it down in one hit."

"Just luck. I happened to strike the weakest point on its body." Wayne kept his explanation light. "Since I couldn't see, I had to rely on perception and hearing. I noticed the Reiatsu around its skull felt off, so I aimed there. Didn't expect it to actually work."

"Hehe, luck is part of strength too! Anyway, Big Brother is amazing!" Momo stuffed more fish into her mouth, grinning. "So does this mean Big Brother can take the Shin'ō Academy entrance exam with me now?"

"In theory, yes." Wayne nodded. "But on the Reiatsu front, I still need time to build up. A fight like today's drained every last bit of my spiritual power. Good thing we dealt with that Hollow — otherwise, who knows how things would have turned out."

"Mm-hmm. I'll catch more wild game for Big Brother from now on, too."

"Bed-wetter Momo!" Shiro-chan, silent until now, suddenly spoke. "We got lucky this time. Should we really keep making Brother Tsukishiro worry like this going forward?"

"Ah..." Momo looked at Shiro-chan, troubled. It was true, even if there had been reasons, they had still run into a Hollow. They had nearly lost their lives. If something like that happened again, would Big Brother be lucky enough to save them a second time?

"Next time, let's fish somewhere closer to the Rukongai. That way we lower the risk." Shiro-chan felt his words had landed a bit hard, so he softened his tone.

In truth, Shiro-chan had been noticeably calmer when facing the Hollow. But he was still young, his spiritual power not yet accumulated in any real measure, so he was easily overpowered. As a soul, his baseline fragility was only barely above a human's.

Shiro-chan had been in Soul Society for several years now, but his control over his own Reiatsu was still far from adequate. He couldn't wield it the way Wayne could, making even a sliver of Reiatsu work with precision. Of course, the future Toshiro Hitsugaya was a different matter entirely. But for now, Shiro-chan was better off staying home, eating watermelon, and letting his spiritual power grow steadily.

"Better to play it safe. For now, let's stick to fishing near town or close to the Gotei 13 patrol points. As for the forest..." Wayne let the sentence hang. He didn't want Momo Hinamori risking herself in the forest for his sake. And frankly, the forest was a place better suited for him to handle alone.

"Okay... I'm sorry, Big Brother..." Momo looked a little crestfallen.

"It's fine, Momo. Big Brother will protect you." Wayne ruffled her hair with fond indulgence and smiled. "And of course, once Momo becomes an outstanding Soul Reaper and awakens her own Zanpakuto, Big Brother will be counting on you to protect him."

"Hehe — yeah!" Momo Hinamori's smile bloomed again, and she nodded hard.

Dinner ended in warm, easy harmony. Afterward, Shiro-chan helped Granny clear the dishes while Wayne led Momo out, heading toward his own home.

"Big Brother, we ate so well tonight — I feel like my spiritual power has grown quite a bit." On the dark road, Momo glanced up at her brother. After everything that had happened, she now saw Wayne as her closest family. If the earlier days had been about manners and courtesy, this was now wholehearted dependence and genuine care.

"It is food infused with Reishi, after all. Feeling a noticeable increase means our potential still has room to develop."

"Right." Momo tapped her lips thoughtfully. "What about Big Brother? Did Big Brother feel his spiritual power grow?"

"Haha — a little, I suppose." Wayne laughed. In truth, after eating, the Reishi that entered his body was quickly compressed and refined. The raw volume was far less than what Momo and the others absorbed, but the quality was leagues higher. Saying he felt something was just to reassure her, in reality, Wayne barely noticed a difference.

"Eh? Doesn't that mean Big Brother's talent is even higher than mine?" Momo Hinamori looked both surprised and delighted.

"Maybe it's because Big Brother's a bit taller? More room for spiritual power?" Wayne played dumb with a joke. He really was considerably taller than Momo, she barely reached his chest. As for Shiro-chan...

To borrow a phrase from Wayne's life before last, holding Shiro-chan in his arms felt about like hugging an Ansai waist drum.

Back home, Momo went to bed early. After facing something so dangerous that evening, even if her nerves had steadied, the shadow of it wouldn't vanish overnight. Rest was the best thing for her spirit. Once Wayne confirmed she was sound asleep, he quietly pulled the door shut, stepped into the courtyard, grabbed the handcart he'd borrowed earlier that day, and walked out the gate toward the forest beyond the district.

Unlike the Seireitei, the streets of the Rukongai had no curfew. It was just that lit lanterns were scarce anywhere in the Rukongai, the districts past the fortieth even less so, so people rarely ventured out at night. That said, it didn't rule out the occasional wandering bandit or cold-blooded type prowling the streets, looking to steal or play vigilante. But here in District One, with the best security and conditions of all, Wayne wasn't the least bit worried. In fact, a Gotei 13 patrol unit made its regular rounds not far from the district boundary.

Leaving the streets behind and entering the forest, moonlight filtered through the trees. Only faint starlight pricked through, nowhere near enough to illuminate anything. Deep darkness. Fortunately, Wayne didn't need his eyes much anymore. He relied on perception to map out everything around him. He couldn't sense the entire forest, but a range of several dozen meters ahead was no problem at all.

"Consider this laying the groundwork for the days ahead." Wayne closed his eyes entirely and moved forward on perception alone.

The forest was utterly silent. Hollows did appear here occasionally, but this was still the Seireitei's domain, large Hollows or anything above Gillian-class weren't going to be roaming around freely. Only someone like the old Wayne, who'd slip into the World of the Living at the slightest whim, would be out wandering the world. But among billions of Hollows, how many possessed spatial abilities like his?

He pressed on. The only sounds were his own footsteps, the creak of the handcart wheels, the drone of cicadas, and the occasional soft grunt of some small creature in the brush.

Reaching deep into the forest, Wayne set down the handcart and surveyed his surroundings. The spatial image formed by his Reiatsu perception stripped the darkness away from the creatures around him, making them glow faintly in the night.

"Eagle's Awareness?" Wayne muttered to himself, then focused on sensing his surroundings in earnest.

"Animals' spiritual power fluctuates erratically. Plants are calm and steady. Edible fruits and vegetation give off a slightly stronger fluctuation than ordinary plants." He observed and catalogued as he went. "The Reishi movement in the soil isn't uniform either. Some patches are dim and lifeless; others show strong fluctuations — those should be soil capable of growing crops." He pushed the cart aside, crouched down, and grabbed a handful of dirt. Then he opened his eyes.

"Looks no different from ordinary soil, just a bit more moist." He brought the dirt to his nose and sniffed. Sure enough, a clean, earthy fragrance mixed with grass and wood. The soil nearby that carried no spiritual power had none of that scent.

"Alright. You'll do." Wayne tossed the dirt aside, dusted off his hands, and started shoveling, one load into the cart, then another. One shovel. Two. Three.

After three loads he set the spade aside and headed off into the forest alone to hunt for wild game. As for the soil, he needed to observe it, to see whether the spiritual power it held would dissipate after being dug up. If after a full night its Reiatsu still held, he'd take it home.

Deep in the forest, Wayne was back to his old trade from a past life: setting traps, catching Hol, ahem, catching wild game. Rabbits, squirrels, pheasants, even wild boar, all of it could end up on the table. Right now, Wayne urgently needed to strengthen his spiritual power. Getting into Shin'ō Academy with solid results was essential to carrying out his plan.

He drew the watermelon knife from his waist, quietly borrowed from Shiro-chan's house, and fixed his eyes on a wild rabbit not far off.

The rabbit was nibbling grass in the brush, leisurely, completely unaware of his approach.

"Hoo..." Wayne exhaled slowly. He lowered his stance, blade held upright before his chest, center of gravity sinking. Then the Reiatsu beneath his feet erupted, and he shot straight toward the rabbit.

THUD!

Predictably, things went wrong. His Reiatsu instantly fell into chaos, and he pitched forward in a straight line, sliding half a meter across the ground.

The rabbit bolted at the violent noise and vanished into the forest in an instant.

"As I thought... Shadow Step won't work." Wayne pushed himself up, grimacing. His knees and shins were slick with blood.

"The way spiritual power circulates is different. Of course I can't use a Hollow's techniques, even simulating the circulation doesn't work." He brushed the dust from his clothes, muttering to himself.

"Looks like if I want to recover my old techniques, I'll need to figure out how spiritual power operates on my own. Or maybe just abandon them entirely? Start from scratch? As long as the direction is the same, the techniques should end up similar enough." The thought crossed his mind. He tried again immediately, but when he attempted to channel his spiritual power, he was startled to find that the attempt just now had already drained every last drop. Only then did the exhaustion hit him.

"Using spiritual techniques at this stage... still pushing too hard, isn't it?" Wayne smiled bitterly and had no choice but to find a large tree, lean against it, and sit down to rest.

"Just getting back to the combat strength of an elite lower-ranked Hollow would be extremely difficult right now. Getting into Shin'ō Academy, graduating, becoming a Soul Reaper to improve my situation, it's urgent. I have to execute this plan. I'd hoped I could cultivate on my own while staying away from the Seireitei, but it's clear now: acquiring resources in the Seireitei is nowhere near as free as it was in Hueco Mundo." Through the dim moonlight between the trees, Wayne tilted his head back toward the night sky.

"That last battle, both Aizen and Tōsen took serious injuries. I wonder what became of them after they returned to the Seireitei. Hmph. And that idiot Gin Ichimaru, such a perfect opening, and he still chose not to act." Wayne's expression turned cold, then shifted to helpless resignation a moment later.

"Ah... well. Even Ichimaru couldn't necessarily have come out on top in that kind of standoff. And on top of that, he was a victim of Kyokasuigetsu himself. Even though I clearly knocked Kyokasuigetsu right out of Aizen's hands. That poor fool." Wayne cursed him silently. One day, he was absolutely going to cozy up to Rangiku Matsumoto and let Ichimaru stew in his own quiet misery.

"Speaking of which, has Rangiku Matsumoto already become a Soul Reaper by now? After her spiritual power was stolen, Ichimaru followed Aizen. So has Rangiku already found Ichimaru by now and gone to the Seireitei to become a Soul Reaper?" Wayne ran the timeline back and forth in his head and realized his window was genuinely tight. He had to get his hands on the Hōgyoku before Aizen merged with it. If he missed this round of the Shin'ō Academy entrance exam, the next was three years away, and by the round after that, Shiro-chan would already be off becoming a Soul Reaper.

Especially once Shiro-chan awakened Hyorinmaru, his Reiatsu would undergo an unprecedented surge. The boost from the strongest ice-and-snow Zanpakuto was no joke, and it was all the more significant because Hyorinmaru had chosen Shiro-chan of its own accord. That was what extraordinary talent looked like.

"Come to think of it... what element would my own Zanpakuto be? Spatial? Concealment? Something else entirely?" During that brief rest, Wayne's thoughts wandered freely. But no matter what kind of Zanpakuto he might one day receive, he would never forget his ultimate purpose. Even here, even with the bonds he had in Momo and Shiro-chan, Nel and Jekain were still his true comrades. His brothers-in-arms, always.

"Maybe once the Aizen incident is over, there'll be a chance for Hollows and Soul Reapers to find some middle ground. If it goes through me, perhaps."

Thoughts were just thoughts. After resting, Wayne stood back up. He kept searching for ways to channel and use his spiritual power while at the same time looking for anything that could replenish it.

Just like the earliest days, Wayne in Hueco Mundo, hunting for prey. Every step careful, every move deliberate. Those days were cycling back around, like a kind of reincarnation. He could only hope that this time through the cycle, Wayne would finally find the freedom that was truly his own.

➤ Next: Soul Reaper and Hollow