Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 125 - Granny's Past

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Five

Once he made it home, Wayne washed up quickly and collapsed straight onto his futon. The night's battle had looked smooth and effortless, but it had drained him enormously. Having to narrate his moves while making sure every strike looked clean and impressive had sent his Reiatsu pouring out like a breached dam. It was a good thing he'd dispatched the Hollow Beast so decisively. Otherwise, he wasn't sure he could have held on. Even after eating half a wild rabbit afterward, his depleted Reiatsu hadn't recovered right away. He endured until he and Kira parted ways, and only then did he let out a long, slow breath and drag his exhausted body home.

He tossed the wild boar and wild rabbit into the courtyard, hurried through a quick wash, and went straight to bed.

He slept through to midday. When he woke, he looked around, Momo and Shiro-chan were both gone, probably already over at Granny's. Wayne stretched lazily, then pulled out the fragment of Hollow Mask he'd brought back. After a night's time, it had already dissolved to less than a third of its original size. This wasn't negligence. The truth was, after the battle, he simply hadn't had the capacity to consume it. He'd been in a state of complete Reiryoku exhaustion, forcing himself to consume it then could have had serious consequences.

Confirming his body was in good condition, Wayne began feeding the mask fragment into his mouth bit by bit. The process was painful, but he kept each intake small. The burden on his body was manageable.

In no time, the entire fragment was consumed. Wayne sat cross-legged and began regulating the Reiatsu inside him. After condensing and compressing what he'd replenished overnight, he finally rose to his feet.

Walking out into the courtyard, he saw that on the rack nearby, a complete pigskin had already been tanned and cured. The meat had been cut into even portions, some set to boil, some to fry.

The offal and innards had all disappeared, dealt with somehow. Of the four sturdy wild boar legs, only two remained. The other two had probably been taken over to Granny's for tonight's dinner. There was also a pig's head, skinned and deboned. Two long tusks, still attached to the skull, sat on the ground nearby.

"Those two little ones really worked hard," Wayne murmured with a wry smile. Butchering a wild boar that weighed nearly two hundred jin was genuinely difficult for two children. He just hoped they hadn't ended up splattered in pig's blood.

He glanced over at the well near the tree. After a whole night of effort, the two of them had basically dug out a rough opening. All that was left was to go deeper. But judging by the amount of work done, those kids apparently hadn't rested much at all last night. And today they'd still come to deal with the pork. They'd really pushed themselves.

Wayne picked up a shovel, stood at the center of the well mouth they'd piled up, and began digging down with full force.

With Reiryoku behind him, his shovel strokes flew. Very quickly he'd dug a pit two to three meters deep. No groundwater had seeped in yet, but as the excavated soil grew increasingly damp, Wayne knew the water vein couldn't be far off.

As the well grew deeper, it became harder and harder to throw the dug earth up to the surface. Wayne had no choice but to grab a wooden bucket from the house, strap it to his back, and carve footholds into the well walls, just enough to support himself, so he could slowly haul the earth out.

But just as he was about to start, a thought struck him. Soul Reapers could gather Reishi beneath their feet to form a solid footing. Now that he had developed a certain degree of Reiryoku, could he try to control it in the same way and create steps like that? If so, there'd be no need to chisel holes into the walls at all.

With that thought, Wayne channeled his Reiryoku into both legs, slowly directing it toward the soles of his feet, until two invisible Reishi platforms gradually formed beneath him.

Sensing the platforms take shape, he tentatively lifted one foot. The Reishi beneath him held his weight steady. He tried taking a second step.

This technique was completely different from how he'd moved as a Hollow. Wayne had no choice but to start from scratch, learning carefully and cautiously. Fortunately, his Reiryoku was dense and concentrated, one unit went as far as three to five normally would. At least he wouldn't fall.

He hauled the soil on his back up to the surface, descended again, hauled out another load, and kept repeating the cycle. Training his Reiryoku control while digging the well, Wayne didn't find it boring at all. He treated it as a workout.

Time passed minute by minute. He quickly dug the well down to seven or eight meters. By then, the ground beneath his feet was a muddy mess. He'd reached the water source. But he didn't stop there, he continued digging downward. Only when he'd reached nearly ten meters did he finally put down his shovel. By that point, the water had already risen to his waist.

"Good. That means there's a proper reservoir now." Reasonably satisfied with his digging work, Wayne used his Reiatsu as a cushion and leapt out of the well. Next, he would lay bluestone bricks along the bottom and walls to reduce sediment movement. This part wasn't difficult. He gathered the pre-prepared bricks in armfuls, leapt back down into the well, and laid them one by one across the floor and against the walls, pressing them firmly in place with Reiatsu. With that, the basic construction was complete. Simple, but it would certainly save more time than going out to haul water every single day. All that remained was to filter the water, and it would be ready for daily drinking.

As souls, they only needed to filter out the sediment to make the water drinkable, no need to boil it. Though boiling would still be necessary for bathing, making soup, and other such uses.

"Tomorrow I'll have Shiro-chan and Momo make a trip to the bamboo grove on South Street and chop down a few stalks." Wayne wiped the water from his face and leapt out of the well again. All that was left now was to let the well settle for a few days.

With the well work finished, the sky had already begun to grow dim. As for suddenly slipping into this reversed day-and-night schedule, Wayne felt he'd adapted well enough. He'd spent decades rushing about in the dark, after all. It didn't much matter to him whether it was day or night anymore. Besides, as souls, they had a more convenient way of living than humans, at least they wouldn't be plagued by illness, and didn't need to worry about harming their bodies by staying up late.

In Soul Society, all pathological reactions could be remedied by adjusting one's Reiatsu or cutting off and regenerating Reishi, and similar methods. Of course, the development of these techniques owed no small debt to the research of the 12th Division. Wayne simply hadn't had the opportunity to access any of that yet.

He washed himself off once more, changed into clean clothes, walked out of his own courtyard, and headed over to Shiro-chan's home.

When he arrived, sure enough, all three of them were already waiting at the dining table.

"Sorry, I'm late," Wayne said apologetically.

"It's fine, Little Tsukishiro. We only just finished cooking not long ago." Granny waved him over with a smile, gesturing for him to sit down quickly.

"Big Brother, you really can sleep," Momo said, sounding mildly disgruntled. It seemed she hadn't managed to have much of a conversation with her big brother at all today.

"Ha, I actually woke up a while back, around midday, I think — but I saw it was still early afternoon, so I went ahead and broke through the well mouth you two had piled up yesterday."

"Huh?!" Momo and Shiro-chan both looked up in surprise.

"W-Wayne — Big Brother Tsukishiro, you dug the whole well by yourself?" Shiro-chan looked alarmed. That was no small undertaking.

"That's right. Spent an afternoon on it, and it's more or less done. For the next little while, all we have to do is let the well settle a bit, and then we can drop a bucket in and start drawing water." Wayne smiled. "Oh, right — tomorrow I'll need you two to go to South Street for me and chop down a few bamboo stalks, and I'll also need you to find some materials. I'll write up a list for you later."

"Okay, Big Brother." Momo nodded. "It's just... Big Brother, in three months we're heading to Shin'ō Academy. Going to all this trouble..."

"It's fine. Doing all of this is a kind of training in itself. Besides, this will still be our home in the future — we're going to come back one day regardless." Wayne ruffled Momo's hair. "And by the way, thank you both for handling the wild boar today. That was hard work."

"Hehe. It was nothing!" Momo grinned. "Oh, and Big Brother — after we finished processing the boar, we took all the offal to the market and sold it, and traded it for some grain."

"That's fine, leave that sort of thing to you." Wayne had no objections to whatever Momo decided to do with the boar. In any case, he could already see on the dining table that two rear legs had been divided into four portions, one for each of them. As for the rest, Wayne didn't mind. As long as everyone had enough to eat and was satisfied.

"Ha, tonight's spread looks so generous! Well then — I'm digging in!" Wayne struck first with his chopsticks, leaving Momo and Shiro-chan far behind.

"Hey?! Big Brother, how can you just do that!" Momo scrambled to grab her own chopsticks.

"Right, Big Brother Tsukishiro, that's shameless!" Shiro-chan wasn't about to be outdone either. And so a full-scale clean-plate campaign broke out among the three of them, while Granny sat off to the side, watching the three children bicker and play with a warm, chuckling smile. In her eyes, a household this lively and full of life was exactly what she, this old woman, had always hoped to see.

Granny helped herself to the food in her bowl at an unhurried pace, utterly unbothered by the three children practically wrestling each other for the meat. The three of them, amid all their squabbling, flew through dinner at a remarkable speed, and in the end all three sat back patting their full bellies in satisfaction as they cleared the table.

"Granny." After dinner, Shiro-chan and Momo went to wash the dishes, while Wayne lay sprawled lazily on the tatami, chatting with Granny. "These past couple of days, have you felt cold while sleeping at night?"

"Oh?" Granny narrowed her smiling eyes and looked at Wayne. "Little Tsukishiro, you seem to know Shiro-chan quite well."

"I can sense a few things." The unspoken signal between him and Granny was acknowledged. Granny already knew that Shiro-chan had recently begun awakening his Reiryoku, and that as he slept at night, his Reiryoku had started leaking out involuntarily, affecting Granny who slept nearby. But Shiro-chan had no idea, and Granny had no wish to tell him.

"Little Tsukishiro, sometimes Granny really can't quite read you, but Granny knows you can't be an ordinary soul. And you've always taken this family seriously. You've been good to Granny, to little Momo, to little Shiro-chan, so Granny is at ease." Granny's expression was gentle and kind.

"Still, Granny hopes this doesn't get told to Shiro-chan. Granny has no Reiryoku herself, but Granny knows that having Reiryoku is a good thing. It's only been a few days, but Granny can feel that Shiro-chan's Reiryoku is growing steadily, and that's probably not unrelated to your efforts, Little Tsukishiro. Granny hopes Shiro-chan can grow strong quickly. After all, Granny is getting on in years, and can't look after Shiro-chan for much longer."

"Don't say that, Granny." Wayne lowered his voice so the nearby Shiro-chan and Momo outside wouldn't hear.

"The reason I brought this up is that I hope to help you solve the problem of Shiro-chan's Reiatsu leaking out." Wayne sat up from the tatami.

"I've heard that inside Seireitei, there is a kind of technique, specifically designed to help those without Reiryoku block out the overflow of Reiatsu from others."

"Oh?" A flicker of surprise crossed Granny's face. Even though Granny had lived long and had encountered a few Soul Reapers, there were things within Seireitei that she didn't fully understand.

"Yes, it's something I've only heard about." Wayne began to explain. "Rumor has it that inside Seireitei, there is a type of fabric made specifically for the servants of noble families who have no Reiryoku, its purpose is to protect those attendants in case a noble Soul Reaper accidentally lets their Reiatsu leak and injures them. Perhaps we could find a way to get a bolt of this fabric and have a set of clothes made for you, Granny, and ideally a bedsheet as well. That way, you wouldn't be harmed by the Reiatsu that leaks from Shiro-chan."

"There's really something like that?" Granny could hardly believe it. After all, what was at stake was whether it could actually block Shiro-chan's leaking Reiatsu.

In truth, before Shiro-chan had been born into Soul Society, Granny had already lived alone for several decades. Her husband had died early, and her own children had all perished after becoming Soul Reapers. They had left Granny behind, and she had made a living growing and selling watermelons. Then Shiro-chan was born, and Granny had been overjoyed, caring for him with every bit of love she had.

And now, with Momo's arrival, and then Wayne's arrival, Granny had finally felt the warmth of a family again.

Growing and selling watermelons, and eating them, had kept Granny's body healthy, and the Reiryoku the watermelons could provide had allowed Shiro-chan, who was capable of absorbing it, to grow up strong.

But because Shiro-chan was still so young, he had no way at all of learning to suppress his Reiryoku the way Wayne did. And so by the time Granny became aware that Shiro-chan had awakened his Reiryoku, that cold, icy presence had already begun to sweep through her body. It was becoming more than she could easily bear.

But Granny didn't want to tell Shiro-chan any of this. She was afraid that Shiro-chan would end up like her children of long ago, becoming a Soul Reaper, and then... being swallowed by a Hollow Beast. Even a little more time was what she wanted; she wanted Shiro-chan to grow just a little more. Even if he truly had to walk the path of a Soul Reaper one day, she wanted him to go in with a better chance of survival.

She wanted to spend a little more time with Shiro-chan. To watch him grow step by step, as she herself grew older step by step.

Momo and Tsukishiro naturally went without saying, though both of them were like grandchildren to her as well, deep down Granny was still closest to Shiro-chan. She wanted to watch him grow, even if it wore her down, even if it cost her her life.

"Don't worry, Granny." Wayne smiled. "Leave this matter to me. Hold on just a little longer. The fabric for blocking Reiatsu, leave that to me. I'll find a way."

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