NOVEL NEXT The Hogyoku (III) [BLEACH UNIVERSE]
A portal appeared at the edge of the black desert and moments later, Kaguya stepped out of the portal. The portal closed behind and Kaguya stared at the endless black sea in front of her… Maybe except for Aizen and the current Tres Espada nobody knew that there was a sea in Hueco Mundo. Even Aizen wasn’t sure if Tier Harribel truly knew about this place or not, but he knew for sure that Tier was born in the sea.
However, Aizen never questioned Tier about this place because he didn’t want anyone to suspect anything about this place. Gin and Tosen might think that Aizen trusted them after so many years of service, but in reality, he didn’t trust anyone. He might have lowered his guard in front of Gin in the future, but it was only because Aizen was merged with the Hogyoku.
And as for the Arrancars? They were simply experiments to him…
Even Ulquiorra Cifer was nothing more than an expendable pawn to him. However, Kaguya had some plans for them. After all, she had plans to recruit subordinates for quite some time and the Arrancars were the perfect candidates. True, she would need to clean the house and establish the pecking order before she would attempt to recruit them, but Kaguya was willing to try.
After all, if left alone, then they were going to die eventually… The Shinigami were bound to come looking for her eventually. They wouldn’t be able to find her, not that easily if she stayed here, but they were going to find Las Noches eventually and then they were going to eradicate the Arrancars or some of the more foolish Arrancars might go out looking for trouble and end up drawing the attention of the Shinigami.
Anything could happen and while Kaguya did not care about what happened to them, they could be useful in the long run if nurtured properly. Kaguya wasn’t past caring for her followers. Nor she was past rewarding her followers for a job well done. Then again Hollows were much different from humans… As long as she was loyal to them, they would be willing to die for her.
Unfortunately, it won’t be easy to earn their trust considering Aizen has been manipulating for years to all of them he was a savior and she was the one who killed their savior… It was going to be complicated, she could already tell that, but it was going to be worth it. However, all of that could come later… Right now, she needed to locate Aizen’s lab.
With the memories of Aizen inside her head, it wasn’t hard to find his lab… Obviously, it was hidden and protected and once again, the memories came in handy as they allowed her to quickly get past all the protections, but she decided not to disable them. Aizen was arrogant, which was probably why he never bothered to add anything to recognize him in the protections.
He was absolutely certain that nobody could find his lab, and maybe he was right, considering his lab was never shown in the anime or the manga… Kaguya inspected the lab and nodded her head in satisfaction. The place wasn’t huge, but it was big enough for her. There was a bookshelf along with a rack filled with various experiment notes, but Kaguya ignored them.
After all, she had her eyes on something more important… The Hogyoku. There was an orb innocently resting on the table with the other Hogyoku inside it.
Kaguya carefully picked up the orb and opened it to reveal the Hogyoku. The two Hogyokus might look the same to the naked eye, but Kaguya could already see quite a few differences. Kaguya took out the other Hogyoku from her Kamui Dimension and stared at it for a moment before bringing it close to the other Hogyoku. As soon as the Hogyoku came in contact, they started to merge.
Yes, that was what Aizen was going to try before anything else… If it worked then all was well and good, but if it didn’t then Aizen did have other plans. Much more complicated plans… However, there was nothing for her to be worried about considering the first plan worked. A minute later, the merging process finally came to an end leaving behind a single bluish-purple orb.
Kaguya gently grabbed the Hogyoku before putting it inside her Kamui dimension… The Hogyoku was probably the most powerful artefact she had ever seen, but it was nonetheless, extremely finicky. After all, it has the ability to sense the deepest desires of those around it and then materialize their deepest desires. Right now, Kaguya’s deepest desire was to be free.
Yes, Kaguya wanted to gain more power, but power was only the means to an end… More than anything else, she wanted to be free… Free from the shadow of her clan… Free to finally live her life… Free to finally do whatever she wanted. Kaguya did not want to know how the Hogyoku was going to materialize that desire of hers. That was why Kaguya decided to put it aside for the time being.
First of all, she needed to sort out her own desires to avoid any accidents… Then she needed to think of the best way to increase her power. Aizen was wrong… That much was obvious. He couldn’t have become the strongest existence as long as he was just a Soul… He didn’t even possess a body. The Hogyoku couldn’t have made him the strongest, even in this world.
Thankfully, Kaguya had her own plans, but for the time being, her plans needed to wait… Right now, she needed to consolidate as much power as she could from the memories of Aizen and after that, she could finally start working on her desires so that she could finally start using the Hogyoku to gain more power. The Arrancar could wait…
It wasn’t like Las Noches was going to run away…
======X======
~~One Week Later~~
~~4th Division, Seireitei~~
UNOHANA RETSU
Unohana Retsu took a sip of her tea with a serene look on her face while staring outside the window. It has already been a week since Aizen revealed his treachery and later died at the hands of someone named Kaguya. Byakuya Kuchiki and Ichigo Kurosaki were still lying in the hospital along with the Captain Commander, who was being kept in a medically induced coma for the time being.
Gotei 13 was still reeling from the incidents that happened a week ago and with no governing body handing out orders to them, everything was a mess. Right now, Shunsui Kyoraku, the Captain of the 8th Division had been forced to take the reins of Gotei 13, but considering the man was extremely laid back and lazy, everything was moving slowly.
The man was using every opportunity he could find to slack…
“Why are you here, Kyoraku-san?” Unohana asked calmly as she took another sip. Just like right now, the man had managed to escape his naggy lieutenant and then he had sneaked into her office so that he could hide from that same lieutenant. If Unohana didn’t know better then she would have thought that the man had stopped fearing her.
“For the tea, of course” Kyoraku answered shamelessly before taking a sip from his own cup. “And to check on the patients” He added after a moment when he noticed the look on her face darken. He took another sip from his cup and even though the tea was nice, he would have preferred sake over this any day. Unfortunately, he did not want to die, not yet. That was why he was completely fine with the tea.
“Is that so?” Unohana asked with a smile. “Didn’t you come to check on them just yesterday?” Unohana asked, earning a cheeky grin from Kyoraku.
“Yes, but I care about them. The old man is my sensei, Byakuya is one of my fellow Captains and the kid is… The kid is important” Kyoraku quickly explained and even though Unohana wanted to point out that he never cared about Byakuya when he was completely fine, she decided to let him be.
Unohana knew why he was here really, so she decided to change the topic and humor him for at least a bit before tossing him out and she needed some information too. “Are you going to re-establish the Central 46?” Unohana asked curiously. The Central 46 was not necessary, but re-establishing the Central 46 would make things run more smoothly.
“Not yet” Kyoraku answered before taking another sip. He noticed the questioning look in her eyes. Considering his personality, he should have been trying to re-establish the Central 46, right? “Re-establishing them is going to cut me some slack, but I am not sure if I should do that. Aizen wouldn’t have been able to do what he did if the Central 46 didn’t exist in the first place” Kyoraku explained his reasons.
Unohana nodded her head in understanding. Kyoraku had a point…
“That is my personal opinion, so I am not sure what the old man is going to do” Kyoraku added dismissively. Well, there was that too. “The Central 46 is not the only thing I need to be worried about, though. Ichimaru Gin and Kaname Tosen need to be dealt with, they are not urgent, so I am going to leave them in their cells” Kyoraku finished with a sigh.
“…Then again, I have no idea how to deal with Kaguya and the Hogyoku. From what Yoruichi had told me, the Hogyoku is an extremely dangerous object. Apparently, it can dissolve the boundaries between Shinigami and Hollows. Aizen had been conducting experiments on Hollows and Shinigamis for centuries!” Kyoraku finished with a huff.
Unohana agreed with him. If the Hogyoku could truly dissolve the lines between Hollows and Shinigamis, then it was an extremely dangerous object… It could very well break the balance of their world…
“Do you know where she is hiding?” Unohana asked. Kaguya had managed to defeat the Captain Commander and that was quite an incredible feat. Unohana never had the chance to see the woman in action herself, but she had felt Kaguya’s bloodlust from the 4th Division barracks and such a delicious bloodlust it was…
Unohana had barely held herself from heading to Sokyoku Hill to revel in such an amazing bloodlust… It had been ages since she had felt something like that. Maybe, Yamamoto was the only one who could match something like that, but Yamamoto was no longer the same man who had recruited her. He was a changed man, and just like him, she was a changed woman.
She was no longer the Captain of the 11th Division… She was no longer known as Yachiru Unohana. Now, she was the Captain of the 4th Division, Retsu Unohana and Retsu Unohana was a healer, not a murderer… However, Unohana still wanted to meet Kaguya one day and cross her blade with her. Maybe, facing a murderer greater than herself could help her regain the spark.
“Scary…” Kyoraku whimpered, trying to scoot away from Unohana, which finally brought her out of her musings. Unohana quickly schooled her features.
“I don’t know what you are talking about” Unohana said sweetly with a gentle smile on her face and that seemed to do nothing to relieve Kyoraku of his fears…
======X======
Kaguya wasn’t sure how much time had passed since came to Hueco Mundo, but she was certain that it had been close to a week. It was hard to tell the time inside Hueco Mundo and her sense of time was already skewed since she never cared about a single day. To be honest, Kaguya didn’t care… Aizen had a lot more memories than all the memories she took from the Shinobis of her Universe combined.
So, it took her a lot of time to consolidate the memories… However, that was not where she stopped. She also decided to discard all the unnecessary memories she had collected since the day she was released…
“Zetsu have located Las Noches” One of her Wood Clones revealed. She had assigned Wood Clones to study the books she had found in the lab and it was currently a work in progress.
“Good. What about Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck?” Kaguya asked.
“He is still looking for her group” The Clone answered and Kaguya nodded her head in understanding. She could have ordered her Wood Clones to send Shadow Clones to scour Hueco Mundo to find the girl and her two hangers-on, but Kaguya wanted to keep her presence a secret for the time being. Kaguya didn’t care much about the two hangers-n, but Nelliel could turn out to be an extremely valuable follower.
Recruiting them wasn’t going to be hard as long as she could play her cards right… The hangers-on would simply follow Nelliel if the girl agreed to join her and with the Hogyoku in her possession, Kaguya could easily fix Nelliel if her own powers didn’t work…