Bleach cant fear your ow.., p.23
Bleach: Can’t Fear Your Own World, Vol. 2, page 23
“Seriously, this whole knight’s order is filled with egotists, his majesty included.”
“That’s a surprising thing for someone to say who’s just been thrown in jail for acting like an egomaniac. So what’re you gonna do after the war ends and you’re actually free?”
“Right. I’ve never imagined that.” After thinking for a while, Gremmy played it off as a joke and shrugged. “Maybe I’ll try cooking? If I just try random stuff, then I might come up with something I couldn’t have imagined—that seems like it’d be entertaining.”
Liltotto couldn’t tell whether Gremmy’s words were serious, and she also answered in a way that made it difficult to tell if she was joking. “Make sure it’s something that you wouldn’t be able to imagine the taste of based on how it looks. If you so much as think that something looks spicy, even strawberry jam would end up like habanero sauce.”
“I’ll take that into account. Next time I make food, maybe I’ll imagine a super high-calorie cookie that’ll fatten you up with a single bite.”
Liltotto pulled a new donut out of the bag and said with a sarcastic smile, “Well, I’ll at least try a taste of it. I’m expecting great things, scum.”
After that absurd conversation, the two of them went their separate ways. Liltotto joined up with Bambietta and the others while Gremmy took along the Quincy he had created from his imagination, Guenael Lee, and they headed into their war with the Soul Reapers.
They didn’t realize that conversation would be the last words they would say to each other.
≡
Present day, the Rukongai
“You said he was an ingredient?”
Hikone nodded eagerly from on top of Ikomikidomoe.
“Yes! The brains in my head mostly come from Mr. Gremmy! That’s what Lord Tokinada told me!”
Liltotto thought for a bit, and though only a few seconds actually passed, she wiped away the emotion in her expression as though she had come to a breakthrough. Wearing her usual somewhat sober expression, the girl hardened reishi and created a Heilig Bogen and pulled a Heilig Pfeil from the pouch on her back.
“So that’s how it is. Basically, you’re a completely different person who just has the same spiritual pressure as him.”
“Uh?”
“Of course that’s it. There’s no way that scummy dude would still be alive.” Though her words sounded critical, Liltotto’s muttering tone was desolate. Hikone tilted their head, and Liltotto let the Heilig Pfeil pointing at the child’s chest fly. “In that case, I can go right ahead and crush you then, can’t I?”
“Uh!”
A roar and a shock wave was generated, and the surrounding spiritual pressure went into violent turbulence. “Tsk…What is that thing?”
Liltotto clucked her tongue as she looked at what was directly in her field of vision. The scene was comprised of Hikone using the palm of their hand to stop the arrow, and Blut Vene, the defensive ability particular to Quincies, spreading before her. But that wasn’t all.
Though it was known only to those who had fought Arrancars and some portion of high-level Hollows, they would have seen not only the Blut Vene pattern on Hikone’s hand, but also the response of Hierro, which was particular to Hollows.
The one who noticed that abnormality was Hirako, who had fought against both Arrancars and Quincies.
“Wait a sec, that can’t be right.”
He understood that the child had Quincy spiritual pressure intermingling within them. And because of that, Hikone’s using Blut Vene wasn’t surprising. However, it was something different altogether that it was accompanied by Hierro, a Hollow-specific characteristic.
Hollows and Quincies are supposed to be the least compatible! That’s the whole reason why we could pump Hollow reishi through ourselves to get back our bankai!
Well, wait. To begin with, how can all of this Soul Reaper, Hollow, and Quincy spiritual pressure be all blended together?
Though blending Hollow with Soul Reaper was fairly uncommon, from Ichigo Kurosaki to the Visoreds including Hirako, it wasn’t as though there were no precedents. However, without the help of a power from something like the Hogyoku, or the course of events surrounding Ichigo’s birth, the reishi wouldn’t have been able to retain the shape of a Soul Reaper. It should have crumbled—and this was even more the case if, in addition, Quincy, which had the worst affinity for the Hollow factor, were also mixed into the child.
Because of that, Hirako grew suspicious that the existence in front of his eyes was somehow related to the Hogyoku. But Hikone looked troubled and asked Hirako, “Umm, what is making her so angry?”
Hikone didn’t seem curious so much as anxious about being in trouble for reasons they didn’t understand and continued to stop the rapid-fire Heilig Pfeils with their bare hands.
“Did I make some sort of mistake?”
“I haven’t got a clue. Well, you might’ve just stepped on some sort of land mine.”
Despite Hirako’s response, he could more or less guess the issue.
I thought they were just working together because they had to, as fellow henchmen…Now that I see them coming to rescue those Mayuri took on as his pawns, it looks like some of them did consider each other friends.
“That’s its own kind of trouble. Seriously.”
Even as Hikone and Liltotto were having their exchange, the battle continued between Ikomikidomoe’s large form and the Arrancars alongside the Quincies. The winged monsters that were ceaselessly being birthed assaulted Grimmjow and the others, as they in turn took them down with Ceros and Balas and zanpaku-to, while continuing to attack the main body.
“Hey! Grimmjow! What is going on here?! Explain!”
“Hunh?! You can tell just by lookin’! I’m killin’ this mammoth that dared to look down on me!”
Grimmjow tsked at Nelliel’s words as he replied. Meanwhile, Luppi, who had been attacking from another angle, cocked his head to the side when he saw a horde of the small monsters being mowed down by a muddy stream.
“Huuuh? You’re here, Halibel? So you’re still alive?”
“That’s what I should be asking you. What are you doing here?”
“Obviously, I’m here to kill Grimmjow. Well, before I can do that, this huge thing is in the way, so I was just thinking of crushing it.”
Luppi, who spoke casually, swung his tentacles around as he let loose a Cero and mowed down the monsters surrounding him. Halibel immediately surveyed the state of her surroundings; she noticed the blond Soul Reaper floating in the air and muttered, “Is that the masked Soul Reaper from Karakura Town?”
However, when she saw that the Soul Reaper was neither fighting nor helping the zanpaku-to that had transformed into a gigantic monster, it looked to her as though he also couldn’t grasp what Hikone Ubuginu was.
“What in the world is happening in the Soul Society?”
As Bambietta’s fire illuminated their surroundings, Liltotto kept shooting Heilig Pfeil one after another. Hikone narrowly evaded those while bowing quickly in between intervals.
“Uh, um, I’m sorry if I did anything wrong. I’m so sorry!”
Though the gestures only made it look like Hikone was making a fool out of Liltotto, the child was extremely serious. Liltotto seemed to know that, and with sober eyes, she simply replied indifferently, “Nah, you haven’t done anything wrong.”
Then she said the words that resulted in Hikone becoming her opponent.
“But your boss, Tokinada Tsunayashiro, is going down. That’s all.”
“Huh?” Hikone was neither angry nor surprised—just inquisitive. “Killing Lord Tokinada is impossible.”
At first glance Hikone appeared expressionless as they said that. However, beneath the bland surface was a shade of doubt accompanied by innocent cruelty, like a child who had been told not to stomp on ants. Those eyes were at the threshold of purity and ignorance—the eyes of someone who genuinely could not fathom the feelings or meaning of what another person was saying or why they were saying it—eyes that did not even attempt to understand.
Realizing that the shade in the child’s depths was hollowness, Liltotto understood that for what it truly meant. She understood that the Quincy monster she knew no longer existed within that spiritual pressure.
A chill buzzed up Liltotto’s spine, and an interval of split seconds passed as she blinked. In the next moment, Hikone had snuck up to her chest.
“Huh?”
The child had traveled through an intricate mix of shunpo, sonido, and hirenkyaku. Though they had been facing each other head on, the child had appeared close to her with implausible speed that caught her completely unaware.
The moment Hikone’s karate chop had broken her Heilig Bogen, Liltotto saw it. The hand of the child who had seemed like a Soul Reaper transformed for just a breath into a warped shape almost exactly like that of a Hollow’s arm. Before Liltotto could even understand what that meant, she was blown away.
“Guh…”
It wasn’t just the zanpaku-to that changed. This kid’s gotten stronger too!
“Are you all right?”
Hearing this calm voice, Liltotto realized that Meninas had at some point caught her when she was blown away.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to be a burden.”
Immediately standing, Liltotto glared at Hikone. Hikone looked down on the girl while also not looking down upon her and wore a simple, plain, pure smile and spoke as though stating a fact. “I’ll stop anyone who tries to kill Lord Tokinada, and—”
The boy—or perhaps the girl—did not notice that their truth meant despair to others.
“Besides, Lord Tokinada is much, much stronger than me!”
≡
A certain place in the Seireitei,
passageway in hidden quarters
“I’m beat. I’m terrible at fighting.”
Tokinada Tsunayashiro seemed to purposefully shake his head as he witnessed the scene in front of his eyes. What appeared before him was the entrance to the special storage area of the Visual Department—or at least the mountain of rubble that remained of it. The earlier combat continued on without change until an abrupt burst of spiritual pressure wind blew by with a golden shimmer. An echoing roar swallowed up the passageway’s floor and wall, and the entrance had been reduced to powder.
“You wouldn’t happen to be able to share the reason for the sudden wolfish violence, Lady Shihoin?”
Yoruichi, who stood atop the rubble, had grown winglike spiritual pressure from the tops of her shoulders all the way down her back. She looked down on Tokinada, who stood in front of the rubble, and smiled boldly.
“Calling it wolfish is so nasty of you. I’d rather you compare me to a cat than a wolf.”
“So will you tell me why you stopped pretending to be a cat then, Lady Shihoin?”
“I doubt you’ll correct yourself, but don’t you think that was a bit forced? Well, whatever. I don’t like a long slog, so in order to beat up those assassins all at once, I just exerted my true power a bit. But I wasn’t expecting the walls and floor to collapse just from that. You may send the repair bill to the Shihoin family.” Yoruichi paused at that point and showed off something in her hand as she continued. “Although, that’s if you have the time to bill me.”
“Wha…” Soi Fon, who had kicked away an assassin in front of her face, let slip her surprise after seeing what was in Yoruichi’s hand. Yoruichi had what looked like a human fetus contained in a small cylindrical glass case, and something like a piece of a Hollow was fused to the specimen.
“I found these things together. Don’t you think this is a slight deviation from the Visual Department’s usual subject matter?”
“I don’t recall ever seeing that. Maybe you brought it in just now?”
“I hope your hearsay works on the Central 46. It seems you already laid the groundwork, but Kyoraku has also been building up his pawn for quite a while. More importantly, those cunning aristocrats would likely prefer to set up a much easier puppet, such as a child who is a distant relative, as head of family, rather than you and your maliciousness.”
Listening to Yoruichi, Tokinada did not seem flustered and simply let a nasty grin form on his face as he replied, “As far as your last opinion is concerned, I entirely agree. However…if you would go this far, may I assume that you will be rejecting my proposal concerning the Soul King and the Shiba family?”
Tokinada was referring to their three-way conversation with Byakuya Kuchiki from just days earlier, and Yoruichi replied indifferently, “Oh, that. I haven’t got a clue about that kid Byakuya, but either way I don’t care if the world ends up changing in the way you said it would.”
“Oh…?”
“Huh?”
Tokinada narrowed his eyes in interest as Soi Fon cocked her head to the side in genuine confusion—she did not know the contents of that three-way discussion. With the other two in front of her, Yoruichi spoke openly about her philosophy of life: “Regardless of whether the ruling structure of the world of the living, Hueco Mundo, or the Soul Society changes, and regardless of what happens to the Shiba family’s standing, I am still me. It might be a pain in the ass, but, well, if the Shiba family is restored Kukaku could probably fulfill the duties as needed.”
When Soi Fon heard the words “Shiba family is restored,” her eyes widened, and Yoruichi watched that with some amusement before folding her arms and grandly going off on Tokinada. “However, that is an entirely separate issue from whether I can forgive you for your evildoing. I never wanted that guy Aizen to stand in heaven, so what makes you think I’d approve of someone even scummier, like you? You’re saying you’re going to attempt to create a world with an entirely different group of people… Well, let’s just see what you’ve got.”
“I see, I see. I must say, what an honor it is to be treated as an even worse villain than Aizen.”
“Did you not hear what I just said? I didn’t say you were a villain—I called you ‘scummy.’”
Tokinada burst out laughing.
“Ha ha ha ha ha! I see! That is indeed quite a difference! However, do you have any right to speak as a descendant of the Shihoin family? Can you say that to me—a member of the Tsunayashiro family—when you yourself are part of the same Four Great Noble Clans?!”
“Yeah, and I’ll say it as many times as I need to. Regardless of who my ancestors were, I am still me. And you are still you. The Tsunayashiros’ pedigree and past deeds have no relation to this—you’re spitting on the world of your own volition, aren’t you, Tokinada?”
“Yes, that’s right—that’s exactly it! I respect Byakuya Kuchiki for his ability to stifle his own emotions for the sake of his clan. I am not envious of him at all! However, do not forget that once you strip away the rings of the tree, even an unyielding, monolithic tree like the Kuchiki family is just as rotten inside as I am.”
“Regardless of that, the Kuchiki family has become a pillar that supports the world. It’s arrogant of you to compare your family to theirs when it was your family’s shoot, not to mention its very trunk, that is rotten.”
What…?
What is Ms. Yoruichi talking about?
Soi Fon, who had finished defeating the last of the assassins, became bewildered listening to the pair’s conversation.
Obviously the Tsunayashiro family is rotten. The dark rumors about them were constant even before Tokinada became head of the family.
But why would the Shihoin and Kuchiki families also be rotten?
Ms. Yoruichi’s…and the Four Great Noble Clans’ ancestors—what exactly did they do?
While Soi Fon was curious about how the conversation would continue, she felt troubled that as a lesser-ranking aristocrat Soul Reaper, she should not perhaps have been privy to this conversation. Eventually, she disciplined herself with, “Eavesdropping on the details of Ms. Yoruichi’s familial circumstances out of my own interest is the lowliest of acts.” Then she devoted herself to working to erase that interest.
“Ms. Yoruichi, I have finished dealing with the attackers. I would like to return to guarding Lord Tokinada.”
“Hm? Aren’t you full of integrity, Soi Fon. I think we could just go ahead and arrest him though. Well, formally we’re doing it as his convoy.”
At that point, Yoruichi turned her eyes to Tokinada and threw some provocative words at him. “So? Where is this ‘new Reio’ that you were going on about? Whatever happens with you, I’d like to get a look at them with my own eyes. They’re supposedly your trump card and will do anything you say, isn’t that right?”
Tokinada let out a small sigh and stared up at Yoruichi where she stood on the rubble. “Right,” he said. “I suppose it’s time to use my trump card.”
His mouth contorted into a grin, and he pulled something that looked like a talisman from his chest pocket.
“Huh? What is that thing?”
“You can tell based on what you see, can’t you? It is a trump card, just as I said.”
In response to Yoruichi’s doubt, Tokinada started to funnel spiritual pressure into the talisman. But in the next moment, Yoruichi, who had just been on top of the mountain of rubble, was instantaneously at his back.
“It’s not as though I’d just wait idly by.”
She tried to grab and twist the arm that held the talisman, but—“Too slow.” As he said that, Tokinada’s form and even his spiritual pressure vanished like smoke.
“Huh?!”
“Wha…? Was that an invisibility technique?!”
Shocked, Soi Fon turned her spiritual senses around to her surroundings, but Yoruichi shook her head in disappointment.
“No. It doesn’t look like he used a Secret Remote Squad technique or a spiritual pressure interception cloak. It’s likely that might have been a Soul Ticket.”
