Originally, Raizen Kō had merely intended to test a hypothesis.
Even if the attempt failed, at worst, Shūsuke Amagai would perish and that would hardly matter.
After all, the true objective the Bakōtō was already secured. Whether Amagai lived or died was inconsequential. A discarded pawn could always be replaced; the Soul Society produced ambitious fools endlessly.
Yet unexpectedly… through a convergence of unstable Reiryoku manipulation and forced Hollow resonance, the experiment succeeded.
A crooked smile curved across Raizen Kō's lips.
"As expected of something born from Aizen's research… even an imperfect derivative remains extraordinary."
The moment Hollow Reiryoku fully flooded Amagai's system, his body convulsed violently.
"ROOOOAR!"
His Reiatsu surged outward in a chaotic burst. A jagged white mask formed over his face, crimson spikes tearing through his limbs. A Hollow hole flickered unstable across his torso before stabilizing.
Without a shred of reason left in his eyes, Amagai lunged forward.
His blade descended in savage arcs no footwork, no strategy, no discipline. Only instinct.
Raizen did not even draw his Zanpakutō.
With calm precision, he raised his hand and intercepted the strikes bare-handed. Sparks of Reiryoku crackled upon contact.
"His Reiatsu has increased… physical strength amplified… speed elevated," Raizen observed coldly. "But he has sacrificed the core of a Shinigami his will."
The difference between power and control.
Even enhanced through artificial Hollowfication, Amagai's level did not approach Captain-class stability. It was brute amplification without refinement.
Dark golden lightning compressed Reiryoku shaped through precise control wrapped around Raizen's fingers.
He stepped forward.
His hand pierced into Amagai's shoulder with surgical efficiency.
"ROOOOAR!"
Instead of retreating, Amagai howled louder, Reiatsu flaring wildly.
Raizen's expression hardened.
"No High-Speed Regeneration…"
Unlike the Hollowification witnessed in Ichigo Kurosaki during the Vasto Lorde manifestation, or even the stabilized transformations achieved by Kaname Tōsen, this was incomplete.
At best, it rivaled the early, unstable states of the Visored.
After allowing the feral Shinigami to exhaust himself, Raizen's interest waned.
He snapped his fingers.
Hidden within Amagai's spiritual core, a compact sphere of compressed lightning Reiryoku detonated outward not explosively, but paralyzingly. Filaments of energy spread through Amagai's spiritual pathways, locking his body in place.
He froze mid-roar.
Raizen stepped forward calmly and tapped the Hollow mask.
Crack.
The mask shattered instantly.
The crimson protrusions dissolved. The Hollow hole sealed. The distorted Reiatsu receded like a collapsing tide.
Amagai's body dropped heavily to the ground, unconscious.
Hours later, his eyes flickered open.
Before he could gather himself, something metallic spun toward him.
Instinctively, he caught it.
The Bakōtō.
Raizen stood several paces away.
"I will return this to you for now," he said evenly. "But understand this: to stand beneath me, Captain-level Reiatsu is the bare minimum."
Before Amagai could respond, Raizen vanished using Shunpo.
Silence returned.
Amagai stared at the weapon in his hands. Then he recalled the sensation that intoxicating surge of power beyond Shinigami limits.
"Hollowfication…"
His eyes gleamed.
He had touched something greater than Bankai.
And he would chase it.
Edge of Hueco Mundo
Far from the World of the Living… beyond Garganta distortions and desert storms…
The endless white sands of Hueco Mundo stretched beneath a corpse-pale moon.
Raizen drew a line in the air.
A Garganta split open with a resonant shriek.
His Shinigami clone maintaining the facade of a Gotei 13 officer stepped through, returning toward the Human World. The mission cover remained intact. Three months of assignment; one month already spent in Hueco Mundo.
No alerts from the Soul Society.
For now.
The Garganta sealed.
Raizen turned toward the deeper desert.
This expedition had been fruitful:
The Bakōtō secured.
Harribel subdued.
Arrancar evolution experiments progressing.
But there was one more presence he sought.
Days later, he found it.
A forest at the fringe of Hueco Mundo.
Mountains of Hollow corpses lay piled grotesquely beneath silver moonlight crushed not by blades, but by Reiatsu alone.
At the center of that desolation sat two figures.
One: tall, lean, dark hair slightly curled. A fragment of Hollow mask hung along his jaw like a bone necklace. A perfect Hollow hole pierced his chest.
The other: a small girl with light blue hair and a jagged horn mask fragment.
They were Arrancar.
More precisely
The Primera Espada.
Coyote Starrk
And
Lilinette Gingerbuck
The only natural Arrancar born through the division of a Vasto Lorde's soul.
Weak Hollows approaching Starrk were crushed instantly by his overwhelming Reiatsu. Loneliness had forced him to split his own soul creating Lilinette so he would not exist alone.
A crude method, Raizen noted silently.
Soul division weakened total combat efficiency. Power fractured into dual consciousness.
Inefficient.
Raizen approached without hesitation.
The ground trembled faintly under the density of spiritual pressure.
He sat beside Starrk casually.
"Don't you tire of silence?" Raizen asked.
Starrk's lake-blue eyes shifted slowly toward him.
"You're… not crushed."
His voice was sluggish unused.
Raizen smiled faintly.
Then he released his Reiatsu.
The corpse mountains trembled violently. Sand spiraled outward in concentric shockwaves.
Lilinette gasped, instinctively gripping her weapon.
Starrk's eyes sharpened.
He placed a calming hand on her shoulder.
"I see… I misjudged," Starrk murmured. "You're… Vasto Lorde class."
Raizen's Reiatsu remained steady immense, disciplined, refined.
"And you," Raizen replied evenly, "have already stepped beyond ordinary Vasto Lorde."
Starrk stood slowly.
His own Reiatsu rose vast, oceanic, suffocating.
The sky seemed heavier.
Two apex predators of Hueco Mundo stood facing one another beneath the moon.
No hostility.
Only recognition.
Reiatsu pressed against Reiatsu not to destroy, but to measure.
For the first time in ages…
Starrk's expression shifted.
Not boredom.
Interest.
And Raizen Kō smiled.
Because loneliness was power waiting for direction.
And he intended to claim it.
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