[Stelle stands outside the window, her knuckles gently tapping on the glass, trying to get the woman's attention.]
["The transport ship is very close to here..." Stelle's voice is very soft, as if afraid of disturbing her.]
[The woman suddenly looks up, revealing a pair of bloodshot eyes through her disheveled hair. Her fingers are wrapped in rough thread, and at her feet are scattered dozens of tiny cloth shoes—some only half-sewn, some already worn at the edges, piled crookedly on the floor.]
["Get lost!" the woman screams, grabbing an unfinished shoe and hurling it at the window, "You liars! Thieves! I hear my children's voices! ...I have to wait for them to come back!"]
[Stelle's gaze sweeps across the room; the walls are covered with all sorts of clothing. In the corner, a tattered cloth doll bear slumps, its belly patched with crooked stitches, threads trailing on the ground, blackened by the woman's bare feet.]
["According to the few remaining records from the planet Drapor, this woman's name is Melciyes." Herta says calmly, "Every single one of the children she gave birth to was an insect without exception, so... she went mad."]
["After the descent of Propagation, there are many people like her. All reproduction in living beings has been dominated by Tayzzyronth... more precisely, THEY dominated the very concept of reproduction. From our current understanding of Aeons, this is probably just a tiny manifestation of THEIR power."]
["Then does HE know what HE is doing?"]
["You mean the Insect King?" Herta says, "If you're asking whether THEY possess personified thinking... that's impossible to determine. Perhaps for THEM, the only thought is to reproduce ceaselessly."]
[Stelle sees Melciyes sitting beside the empty cradle. Suddenly, an insect crawls in through her broken window, gnawing on the little food left in the room.]
[Melciyes trembles as she embraces it. For a moment, she thinks her child has returned, tears streaming down her face. Her fingertips gently caress the insect's smooth carapace, as if stroking her child's back.]
[She sews clothes for it, wrapping its body in scraps of cloth; she sews cloth shoes for it, stubbornly slipping them onto its cilia-covered insect legs; at night, she teaches it language, making it call her "Mama," but all she gets in response is the rustling sound of jointed limbs rubbing together.]
[Seven days later, her home is overrun with the offspring of her "children." They gnaw through curtains, bore holes in the floor, leaving winding tunnels in the walls. Melciyes sits in the center of the sea of insects, still sewing tiny shoes stitch by stitch, as the swarm crawls over her body—none of them stopping for her.]
——
Bleach.
In the backyard of Urahara Shop, the night is deep.
Urahara Kisuke leans against the doorframe, his folding fan tapping idly against his palm. His gaze is fixed on the screen in the sky, on the madwoman sitting amid the swarm. When he sees an insect crawl onto her cheek, Urahara feels a sudden chill and instinctively slaps the fan against his own face.
"What's wrong? Scared there might be bugs on your face?" Shihouin Yoruichi steps out from the shadows, her golden cat-like eyes narrowing slightly. "It's rare to see that expression on you."
"Facing a sky full of insect swarms, it's normal to be afraid, right?" Urahara puts away his fan. "The power of an Aeon... truly unreasonable. It's like establishing some unrealistic rule and forcing the entire universe and everything in it to obey."
"I can only say... thank goodness Propagation vanished early enough, or even we wouldn't have escaped."
"Hmph, you think it's over just like that? Have you forgotten the giant true sting insect that swallowed the Express crew not long ago?" Yoruichi crosses her arms, sneering. "Those bugs that invaded the interior of the carriages immediately started laying eggs, and they had the ability to 'replicate.' If Stelle and the others hadn't killed them faster than they could replicate, the Express would have been packed full of bugs long ago."
"What Yoruichi means is... the power of Propagation still exists in the universe?"
"Yeah, the Aeon disappearing doesn't mean all the swarms disappear. Look at the egg-laying and reproduction speed of those true sting insects... that's enough to become a force that can't be ignored, a calamity for the universe."
As she speaks, Yoruichi clicks her tongue in slight annoyance. "Thanks to these bugs, I now find Hollows feel a lot more comfortable by comparison. At least some Hollows have reason and purpose, while these bugs... they only know pure consumption and reproduction, endless."
Urahara is silent for a moment, then chuckles lightly: "Well, Yoruichi, if that swarm comes rushing over, do you think the living world and Soul Society can hold out?"
"..."
Yoruichi rolls her eyes at him. "How would I know if we can hold out? But if the bugs really show up at the door, you'd definitely be the first to hide in your underground lab, tinkering with all sorts of weird inventions."
Urahara Kisuke dramatically clutches his chest, putting on an injured expression: "Oh dear, Yoruichi-san, those words really hurt my feelings—I'm clearly the type who'd rush to the front lines first to protect everyone~"
"Oh? Really?" Yoruichi raises an eyebrow, looking at him with a half-smile. "Then last time when the Hollow swarm attacked Karakura Town, who was hiding in the shop eating watermelon and watching the show, calling it 'observing the battle situation'?"
"T-That was strategic observation!" Urahara coughs twice awkwardly, snapping his fan open to cover half his face, leaving only his smiling eyes visible. "Besides, in the end, didn't I step in?"
"Hmph." Yoruichi is about to mock Urahara again when suddenly her pupils contract sharply.
At first, it was fine dots—myriad winged insect shadows trembling in the starry river, like a painter's twisted night sky suddenly coming to life. Then the entire picture begins to be erased by some invisible eraser, fading from the edges, revealing the original blank whiteness of the canvas.
In the blink of an eye, the swarm seems to have been brutally wiped away.
"...What was that?" Yoruichi's voice carries a rare tremor.
But Urahara Kisuke can't answer her. His folding fan falls to the ground with a clatter, cold sweat sliding down his temple.
He keenly realizes... it's not just Propagation—something beyond their understanding has appeared in the light screen.
No sound, no light, yet both seem to hear the wails of countless galaxies. Swarm, planets, stars... everything returns to nothingness in that dark throat.
——
["Voracity—Oroboros." Herta explains, "Voracity is the Aeon ascended from the 'Dusk Ancient Beast,' both an ancient beast and an Aeon, an ever-unsatisfied devourer, a thinking void. THEY and Preservation's Qlipoth are ranked among the oldest known Aeons."]
["So what just happened to me... was being eaten by THEM?" Stelle remembers she was just at the madwoman's place.]
["Yes, every time Voracity opens THEIR mouth, billions of stars perish—though the same goes for Tayzzyronth's countless offspring. One propagates, one devours; they sound like mortal enemies, practicing each other's Paths while bringing apocalyptic disaster to the universe."]