Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 176 - Two Years

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Six

"Shiro-chan! Hurry up! It's your first day of classes at the Shin'ō Academy — don't be late!"

Outside the first-year boys' dormitory, Momo, now a fourth-year, was already calling out to Toshiro Hitsugaya, who had just set foot on the Academy grounds.

"I know, I know." Shiro-chan came running out, still pulling his clothes on. "And please — don't call me Shiro-chan at school. Call me Hitsugaya."

Two years had passed in a blink. Wayne had graduated early and joined the 4th Division. Kira and Momo, however, remained at the Shin'ō Academy, that had been Wayne's intention. He didn't want them following him into the Gotei 13 simply because they'd gotten their Zanpakuto ahead of schedule. It would leave their foundations shaky. So after some discussion, they stayed on to continue their studies. When Shiro-chan enrolled two years later, Momo's energy came roaring back from the low that had settled over her since her big brother left early for the divisions.

Shiro-chan was a dear friend, after all. Not blood like Wayne, but close enough to matter. So as his upperclassman, and at her brother's urging, Momo began holding him to strict standards. What she didn't know was that once Shiro-chan got his Zanpakuto, he would overtake her in no time.

Kira's situation was simpler. He took Wayne's advice and continued his advanced studies. Years ago, Wayne's wager had earned him a fortune in silver rings. He reclaimed the deed to his ancestral home from rival families and, by awakening his Zanpakuto, surpassed his peers to become a candidate for clan head. With Isshin Shiba's help, he then led his family into the ranks of the Shiba clan's affiliated nobility. With the Shiba main family's backing, his path to clan head was all but assured.

The Academy was stable, and so was Wayne. Two years of quiet cultivation had sent his strength forward in leaps. He was the kind of person who went to the division when there was work and came home to soul-absorb from spirit plants when there wasn't. Outside of family meals and the bare minimum of social obligations, he did almost nothing else.

Under Shunsui Kyōraku's mediation, Mayuri Kurotsuchi had shifted from wanting to slice Wayne open for research to cooperating with him, working together to prepare contingency measures for the Hollowfication incidents that had been occurring.

Wayne, for his part, made a point of spending more time with Mayuri, performing intense enthusiasm and curiosity about the captain's research. Through those interactions, he also learned something of the Nemuri Project.

In certain foundational aspects, the Nemuri Project overlapped with cloning knowledge from two lifetimes ago. And since Wayne hadn't lost those memories, he compiled what he knew into a series of summaries and presented them to Mayuri as a gift.

Mayuri burned through two straight nights digesting the material. He acknowledged that while Wayne's summaries were rough, they genuinely offered some help to his research. From then on, Mayuri occasionally held discussions with Wayne, though, being a proud scientist, those sessions were mostly lectures and displays of his own superiority. Wayne always played the attentive audience, which made Mayuri all the more willing to talk about his projects.

Over two years, they went from nerve-wracking blood draws to trading thoughts on deconstructing the Reiatsu of Hollows and Soul Reapers, and eventually to Mayuri narrating the full history of his various research endeavors. Now, at last, Wayne had the opening he needed to ask about the enormous apparatus inside the Shin'ō Academy.

"Hm? You're asking about what's in that examination room?" Mayuri fiddled with a test tube, glancing back at Wayne. "How do you even know what's in there?"

"My perception picked up Hollow Reiatsu inside. The seal on it is good, but I could still feel it — that faint, discordant pressure." Wayne kept a straight face as he dressed up what he'd actually seen with his own eyes into something suitably vague.

"I see." Mayuri studied Wayne for a moment, then returned to his experiment. "That is a Menos Grande captured from Hueco Mundo." His expression didn't change as he said what, to Wayne, landed like a blow. "A Hollow beast even stronger than a Vasto Lorde-class Menos."

"Stronger than a Vasto Lorde-class..." The pupils behind Wayne's sunglasses contracted sharply. A Hollow beast beyond Vasto Lorde. A King Hollow? An ancient Hollow? Was the thing sealed in that container a supreme ruler of Hueco Mundo?

"You've spent all that time digging through the archives. Did you ever come across records of anything surpassing Vasto Lorde?" Mayuri kept working.

"I... no. I've never heard of such a thing." Wayne feigned surprise and kept listening.

"Above Vasto Lorde-class Menos, there exists an even higher order. We call it the King Hollow. What you sensed in that examination room is the remains of one, its corpse, after death."

"Remains?"

"Yes." Mayuri nodded. "About two hundred years ago, Vasto Lorde-class Menos from Hueco Mundo launched an attack on Soul Society. A Hollow named Szayelaporro led tens of thousands of Hollow beasts in an invasion. Soul Society counterattacked, pushed into Hueco Mundo, and purged the horde entirely. Szayelaporro himself escaped, unfortunately. But we found these remains at the stronghold he had been using as his base." Mayuri clicked his tongue. "Quite unexpected, Szayelaporro was something of a scientist himself. A Hollow conducting research. I genuinely never imagined that."

Wayne's mouth twitched. Back then, he'd taken Nel to the World of the Living to gather books. He'd had Timud study that knowledge, and made technological exchanges with Szayelaporro. If Hueco Mundo had any materials to work with, they'd probably have built a nuclear bomb by now.

"In his laboratory, we found the remains. His Reiatsu hadn't dissipated even after death, and after a battery of tests, we confirmed he was one of the legendary King Hollows. So we brought him back and sealed him in a container. Through scientific study, we discovered he possessed an ability to create illusions. We linked several artificial brains and activated his brain tissue cells, drawing out a tiny fraction of that ability, just enough to construct that examination apparatus. It forces a person to confront what they least want to face, exposing the state of their mind. Unfortunately, the amount we can read is very limited. We can judge based on Reiatsu and brainwave fluctuations, but we can't read minds directly.

"We also attempted to extract his Reiatsu and abilities afterward. Every attempt failed without exception. We still don't know exactly where it went wrong. Perhaps he's been dead too long and his power has deteriorated across the board. So in the end, I've simply kept him running as a testing machine."

"Creating illusions... wouldn't that rival Aizen's Complete Hypnosis?" A chill moved through Wayne. A King Hollow, even dead, there should be fragments of Law remaining. That illusion ability must represent some kind of Law.

The King Hollow had been dead for centuries, but his Hollow Mask was still intact. If he could eat it... Wayne's mind moved quickly. If the Reiatsu was still present, one bite might send him straight back to Vasto Lorde level. He drew a slow breath. He would need to seriously think about how to get his hands on that thing.

"On the subject of Hollowfication research, I'd like to draw more blood samples. Nemu, assist him." Mayuri set aside his vials, peeled off his gloves, and tossed a case to Nemu Kurotsuchi, who had been sitting silently the entire time, watching without a word. "Two years of Hollowfication research, and our progress remains unsatisfactory. I keep wondering whether something has gone wrong somewhere."

Nemu took the case and opened it with practiced ease. Inside: needles and reagent vials. Wayne calmly rolled up his sleeve and let her work.

Per his agreement with Shunsui Kyōraku, Mayuri was forbidden from planting any surveillance bacteria on Wayne. And every time Wayne returned home, he drew on the Hollow beast power within his Zanpakuto to run a thorough cleansing of his body.

"I think the problem is simply that our experimental material is too limited. Relying on my blood and a body of theory alone, there's no reason that should work." Of course there wasn't. Wayne understood how Hollow beast spiritual power operated, which was precisely why he could convert their Reiatsu into his own so readily. But he was still just a commoner from the Rukongai. Getting anything useful out of his blood would be a miracle. Wayne didn't press the point further. His reason for getting close to Mayuri was to deepen his knowledge of Soul Society's scientific capabilities, and to learn the true nature of that sealed Hollow beast.

"Still, your Nemuri Project is moving along nicely, Captain Mayuri."

"The Nemuri Project has been a success since Nemu. Everything you've contributed is icing on the cake, preparation for my next step, Nemuri Number Eleven." Mayuri looked at Wayne with undisguised contempt. "We need to identify the root cause of Hollowfication before we can break further ground. For that, I'll need to acquire a large number of Hollows to use as test subjects for Hollowfication serum trials." He turned a sidelong look at Wayne. "How is your Bankai training progressing?"

"Completely at a loss." Wayne shook his head.

The truth was that Wayne's Zanpakuto was his own Hollow Reiatsu. He had absolute command of his own power. Fully releasing his Hollow beast power and fusing it with his Reiatsu was his strongest form, his Bankai, in effect. And he had known it the instant he awakened his Zanpakuto.

No one understood his power better than he did. Communicating with a Zanpakuto spirit was simply unnecessary. It would be no different from talking to himself.

Of course, releasing all his Hollow beast Reiatsu would cause his old Hollow beast form to manifest across his body. Aizen would likely notice. So not knowing Bankai was the best cover he had.

"Well... it hardly matters. Your combat strength is already unmatched below the captain level." Mayuri said it plainly.

Over two years, every captain in the Gotei 13 had watched Wayne's growth. He'd entered an intra-division tournament once. Every challenger — Ikkaku included — lost to him. Ikkaku had refused to use Bankai against Wayne's Shikai, so Wayne simply pinned him down and hammered him. It nearly prompted the 11th Division captain, Kenpachi Zaraki, to step into the ring himself.

Captains weren't permitted to participate. So Kenpachi offered Wayne several spirit plants in exchange for a private bout. They chose the outskirts of the Rukongai as their arena.

The outcome?

Wayne spent the better part of a month in bed. Kenpachi turned up the next day with bandages wrapped around his midsection, snoring away contentedly in the 4th Division's treatment room, and was already looking to schedule a rematch before his treatment was finished.

Captain Unohana put a stop to that. As it turned out, Kenpachi had no spirit plants to give. Those came from Unohana's own greenhouse.

That fight, regardless, cemented Wayne's standing. Over two years he climbed from 8th Seat to 3rd Seat, establishing himself as a dual prodigy in both Kaido and combat.

"About the Hueco Mundo expedition, you've been petitioning repeatedly with no success?"

"Right. I can't use the Senkaimon." Wayne let out a sigh.

It wasn't really his fault. His Zanpakuto wasn't a conventional one and couldn't operate the Senkaimon. Using it required a degree of Kidō ability, and Wayne had no affinity for Kidō whatsoever. The Senkaimon was, for him, simply off the table.

"I'll put in a word upstairs." Mayuri took the test tube of Wayne's blood from Nemu. "But capturing the Hollows, that falls to you."

"No problem." Wayne agreed without hesitation.

"Tch. Tedious revenge. People are always like this, conflict kindled by hatred." Mayuri was naturally aware of what had happened between Yagami China and Wayne. Wayne met the remark with silence, a quiet smile his only answer.

After two years, he was finally going back to Hueco Mundo.

That evening, Wayne came home and sat down to dinner with his family.

"Shiro-chan, how was your first day?" Wayne shoveled rice into his mouth.

"Not bad." Shiro-chan spoke through a full mouth. "I was lucky enough to meet Captain Aizen today. He explained Zanpakuto usage to us and even demonstrated his Shikai."

Wayne's brow creased slightly. Of course. Aizen never missed an opening. "Once you've settled into Academy life, go to the 10th Division barracks and find Miss Matsumoto. Have her introduce you to Captain Shiba." Over two years, Matsumoto had grown close to Wayne's family. She had already spotted Shiro-chan's talent and understood by now that the genius Wayne had once promised was this white-haired boy.

"Okay." Shiro-chan, his path laid out clearly, didn't overthink it. He knew Wayne wouldn't steer him wrong.

"Momo, for the next while you'll need to keep a close eye on Shiro-chan. Do your best to help him awaken his Zanpakuto by the time you were in your first year." Wayne turned to her.

"Understood, big brother. I'll try my best." Momo set down her chopsticks. "But why bring all this up today? Are you going somewhere?"

"Yeah." Wayne took his last mouthful of rice, chewed, and swallowed. "In a few days I'm heading to Hueco Mundo. There's an expedition."

PS: Fell asleep... only just finished this update. My fellow Vasto Lordes, sorry for the wait.

➤ Next: Return to Hueco Mundo