In the Menos Forest, long-nosed Gillians gradually took shape in front of Seth, though they would all soon become food in his belly.
These Gillians were all artificially induced by Kōe, and their appearance further verified his hypothesis: Hollows whose self-awareness could not overcome their instincts could not evolve into conscious Gillians, and thus, they forever lost the possibility of evolving into Adjuchas.
Seireitei recognized two tiers of Hollows: ordinary Hollows and Menos. Menos were further divided into three classes: the lowest-tier Gillian, the middle-tier Adjuchas that served as the mainstay of Hueco Mundo, and the endpoint of Hollow evolution, the Vasto Lorde, which were said to be stronger than Captain-class Shinigami.
According to the memories of his past life, the final level a Hollow could reach was actually determined the moment they were born. For some Hollows, their endpoint was a mindless Gillian; others would remain Adjuchas for their entire lives. Only a minuscule fraction could ever become the strongest Vasto Lorde.
However, this destiny could actually be altered. Take Seth's existence, for example. Kōe didn't believe that without his intervention, the Hollow could have become a conscious Gillian, or rather, a pseudo-Adjuchas.
Not to mention that in the future, his good friend Urahara Kisuke would invent the Hōgyoku, an object that could artificially shatter the boundary between Shinigami and Hollows.
Of course, Kōe's current actions weren't meant to beat Urahara to inventing the Hōgyoku; he was merely adding a few chips to his own plans.
Whether it was Kurotsuchi Mayuri being locked up in the Maggot's Nest or the fall of the Shiba clan, it all gave Kōe a sense of powerlessness, as if his hands and feet were bound. It made him realize that in a place like Seireitei, which hadn't changed in a thousand years, the efforts of just a limited few individuals were utterly futile.
He had once thought about making compromises within the system, but thinking about it carefully, whether it was Urahara and Yoruichi from his past life's memories, or Kurotsuchi Mayuri and the Shiba clan he was witnessing now—no matter what their original intentions were or what contributions they had made to Seireitei, they could become heinous criminals at any moment.
They were too stubborn to change until it was too late. Seireitei would change, but only when it absolutely had to. Naturally, Kōe could wait patiently alongside it. Knowing exactly what the future of this world held, he was more than capable of keeping himself out of harm's way.
But he was no longer just a passing traveler. Whether it was Shiba Kaien, who would die because of Aizen, or Old Man Yama, Sasakibe Chōjirō, and Ukitake, who would perish in the Thousand-Year Blood War—they were all closely connected to him.
Knowing that these people would die in the future and still remaining indifferent was something Kōe truly could not do.
There were only two ways to change the status quo. The first was to make himself strong enough—strong enough to surpass Aizen, Old Man Yama, and even that monk in Squad 0.
The second was to gather a group of subordinates to assist him, people who could perfectly execute his ideas, search for the Wandenreich, and even die for him without a single complaint.
Both methods carried certain risks. With Kōe's current strength, if he went all out and used both of his Zanpakutō, he reckoned he could hold his own against pre-Hōgyoku Aizen, but compared to Old Man Yama, he was still somewhat lacking.
Although there was still room for his strength to grow, he knew very well that he had hit a bottleneck. Moreover, the growth of his strength was completely out of his control.
As for the second method, it was difficult in its own way. After all, he wasn't Aizen, who could still bide his time and develop in secret. The number of eyes on Kōe was countless, and he didn't have a Zanpakutō like Kyōka Suigetsu. Trying to secretly pull off something massive in Seireitei was practically impossible.
But it was also simple in a way. As long as Kōe was out of Seireitei's line of sight, he wouldn't even need to be sneaky to cultivate his own faction.
Following the principle of not putting all his eggs in one basket, Kōe ultimately chose Hueco Mundo.
Not only was this a place beyond Seireitei's reach, allowing him to support his idea of building a faction, but Hollows, unlike Shinigami, also held far too many secrets. Both Urahara and Aizen had started their research with Hollows. If there was going to be a breakthrough in the barrier he hadn't been able to cross for so long, the catalyst would most likely appear here.
And that was indeed the case. Right now, for instance, Kōe was very interested in the Adjuchas named Derel standing before him.
"Most Hollows that become Adjuchas head to the upper levels of Hueco Mundo, but there are still Adjuchas present in the Menos Forest, just in very small numbers."
This was what Ashido had told Kōe. Although this Shinigami, who had stayed in Hueco Mundo for so long, still couldn't get past his own mental hurdles, he didn't stop Kōe's actions. Instead, under the guise of "supervising," he provided Kōe with quite a bit of verbal assistance.
Completely subjugating someone was no simple task. Even the future Aizen had to employ both fear and favor, displaying his overwhelming strength while simultaneously offering Hollows the chance to evolve further, which was how he established a firm foothold in Hueco Mundo.
But even so, the Espada by his side all harbored their own ulterior motives. Very few truly saw Aizen as their master from the bottom of their hearts; most had their own agendas and their own convictions.
Therefore, when it came to subjugating Hollows, Kōe basically took the same route. He wanted to see if he could artificially alter a Hollow's evolution while simultaneously controlling their life and death through Kidō—the classic carrot and stick approach.
Seth's emergence was exactly this. The headaches he had experienced earlier were actually the result of the Kidō that Kōe had secretly planted inside his body. However, controlling Hollows through Kidō had encountered a few hiccups.
Both ordinary Hollows and Menos possessed Reiryoku within their bodies, but strangely, ordinary Hollows didn't seem able to utilize this Reiryoku. At first, Kōe thought this was related to whether or not they possessed consciousness, but he later discovered that wasn't the case.
Under this premise, what was even stranger was that the Kidō Kōe had planted would gradually dissipate within Seth's body. The fact that a creature unable to even autonomously utilize Reiryoku could neutralize his Kidō truly opened Kōe's eyes.
But a Hollow's body was inherently unique. Through devouring alone, they could fuse different Reiatsu without causing any conflict. To so easily accomplish what Hikifune Kirio had spent a century researching could only be described as a natural-born gift.
Left with no choice, Kōe had to develop a type of Kidō where he could actively inject Reiryoku at any time. The downside to this was its poor concealment; almost anyone capable of controlling the Reiryoku within their body would be able to detect the existence of this Kidō.
Yet, the moment Seth evolved into a Gillian, this Kidō unexpectedly collapsed entirely. It wasn't that the Reiryoku couldn't be maintained, but rather that it was directly neutralized—or more accurately, devoured.
Could it be impossible to plant Kidō inside a Menos? Kōe found many Gillians to experiment on because of this, but the results were all the same: Kidō could not be sustained within a Gillian's body.
He originally thought this was a new ability inherent to the bodies of Hollows that had evolved to the Menos class. However, Kōe vaguely remembered from his past life that the Hollowfied Tōsen Kaname ultimately died because of a Kidō mechanism Aizen had planted inside him. Furthermore, Aizen himself had a Kidō implanted in him by Urahara during his Hollowfication process.
Therefore, Kōe went through a great deal of trouble in the Menos Forest to find an Adjuchas to experiment on, and the final result was truly fascinating.
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