The moment Mahiru lost consciousness, she did not find herself in darkness…
but in a place utterly silent—
so quiet it was frightening.
A gray sky with no sun.
A white ground fading endlessly into nothing.
No shadows… no colors… nothing but emptiness.
She slowly lifted her head, breathing shakily:
"…Where am I?"
The air trembled around her, as if the world itself was responding.
Then a human-shaped silhouette formed in front of her… slowly taking shape, piece by piece.
A step…
Then another…
Until she was standing in front of another version of herself.
Same hair.
Same eyes.
But… one difference.
The other Mahiru's pupils were completely still.
Warm… yet hiding something dark—
something deep and impossible to ignore.
The other Mahiru smiled softly, a smile unlike anything Mahiru had ever shown:
"At last… we meet."
Mahiru's eyes widened.
"You… you're me?"
The other shook her head slowly:
"I am… what you keep trying to bury."
The real Mahiru took a small step forward, almost afraid to touch the truth.
"Why… do you look like that?"
The other walked around her with soft steps, her voice gentle yet carrying a strange weight:
"Because you're afraid."
"You fear showing your anger."
"You fear admitting that you're not always kind."
"And you fear… being weak."
Mahiru froze in place, as if the words had stabbed something deep inside her.
The other Mahiru approached, until they were face-to-face.
She extended her hand and touched Mahiru's chest with the gentlest motion:
"I'm the part that's supposed to protect you… the part you want to erase."
Then she smiled wider—a light smile, yet dripping with quiet irony:
"But the truth? You need me more than you think."
Mahiru lowered her eyes:
"I… I'm not strong."
The other Mahiru lifted her chin with her fingertips—tender, but tinged with darkness:
"I know."
"But I am strong."
Then she leaned closer, whispering near her ear:
"And I won't let anyone hurt you ever again."
Mahiru stepped back, fists tightening with unease.
"Do you… want to take control of me?"
The other stopped, staring at her with a depth impossible to read:
"No."
"I want you to accept me."
"If we merge… we'll become something new. Something that cannot be broken."
The gray world fluttered around them, as if they stood at the edge of a fateful choice.
The other Mahiru extended her hand—an invitation with no return:
"Come."
"Let us become one."
"Let us live… without fear."
Mahiru stood caught between fear and curiosity…
between her weakness and the self she tried to bury for years…
And she had to choose.
_
Outside.
Ren stood firmly before the two girls still undergoing their transformation, while the Hōgyoku in his chest pulsed with a soft silver glow—steady like a calm heartbeat, yet carrying an immeasurable power within.
He extended his right hand slightly, guiding a controlled stream of his spiritual energy toward Mahiru and Xenovia, regulating every particle of change taking place in their bodies.
Yuuma, on the other hand, had already completed her transformation.
She sat motionless on the ground, unconscious, her chest rising and falling slowly as her soul adjusted to its new Quincy nature.
There was no need for further intervention.
The scene before Ren was a mixture of beauty and danger:
Xenovia was now wearing a pitch-black shihakushō, her features tense, her body trembling with every surge of energy rippling through her soul.
A Hollow mask was forming—half of it covering her face, as she let out muffled, feral roars, like a newly born beast that had yet to recognize the world around it.
If Ren's spiritual chains weren't wrapped around her body, she would have lost control entirely.
Mahiru, however… was the one Ren focused on most.
A brilliant silver glow enveloped her body, swirling around her like a spiritual cocoon rebuilding her from scratch.
She was nothing but a normal human—
and if left to transform into a Hollow without guidance, her soul would have collapsed instantly, turning into a weak, mindless Hollow with no will.
That was why Ren intervened intensely.
He shared a portion of his power with her, pushing her transformation toward a Vasto Lorde…
then guiding her evolution into an Arrancar through the Hōgyoku, which reacted to her as if it recognized her true desire to exist.
The process was impossibly delicate—
requiring razor-sharp focus, balanced spiritual flow, and the ability to control two opposing forces at once: Hollow power and Shinigami power.
But for Ren?
It wasn't a burden.
It was pure delight.
He felt like a master craftsman, an engineer shaping a complex masterpiece—
watching its form inch closer to perfection with every passing moment.
Every flicker of light, every crack forming on the mask, every pulse of reiatsu was a piece of a larger painting—
a painting he was bringing to its final state with his own hands.
And yet… he never forgot Xenovia.
Infusing someone with both Shinigami and Hollow energies to elevate their soul was extremely dangerous.
One mistake—
even the smallest—
would be enough to tear her soul apart.
So Ren divided his attention with impossible precision, maintaining perfect balance between Mahiru and Xenovia—
not a single particle more here, not a single flicker less there.
The palace around him vibrated under the intense spiritual pressure, the Hōgyoku's silver light dancing from his chest into the air as if everything was waiting for the moment when the three souls would be reborn into their new forms.
Before Ren's eyes, the girls' conditions finally began stabilizing.
The spiritual turbulence that had filled the room moments ago gradually faded, replaced by a heavy silence that precedes the birth of something new.
Xenovia was the first to change.
Her feral growls weakened…
her erratic roars settled into heavy breaths…
then into an eerie stillness—
as if the two souls within her, Shinigami and Hollow, had found a temporary point of balance that allowed her to exist without breaking.
Mahiru, though…
she was the moment Ren was truly waiting for.
Her form began to shift before him in slow, majestic waves.
The white substance that had covered her body—the remnants of her Hollow shape—started to melt away, withdrawing upward and reshaping itself into a delicate hair ornament with a pearly sheen.
But it wasn't one ornament…
Several small, interwoven ornaments formed—each shaped like a perfectly carved four-pointed star—arranged harmoniously around her head, creating a rare crown unlike anything human or Hollow.
A crown of stars.
A symbol of purity… of aura… of quiet majesty.
As the last traces of her transformation faded, Mahiru—
reborn—
stood upright despite her unconsciousness, as if her body refused to fall until the moment of her emergence was complete.
She looked like a queen born between sky and earth—
A queen who did not rule with brute force,
but with calm, kindness, and fairness…
Yet beneath that kindness was a deep, suffocating aura that could not be ignored—
a silent warning that this soul, no matter how gentle she seemed, carried a power capable of shaking an entire world.
Ren smiled softly—
the smile of someone watching his masterpiece reach its most beautiful form.
...
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