(T/N: Sixth and final chapter for today! Hope you guys enjoyed the read! and Thanks for the support!!
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Nanatsuki unpacked the materials he had taken from Miyamoto Tetsuya's lab.
Fortunately, his own lab was built beneath a mine—spacious enough to store all the life-support tanks.
"Where did you get all these Reishi Shells and equipment, Sensei?" Aizen Sōsuke asked, surprised. The amount was staggering, almost like Nanatsuki had emptied Hikifune Kirio's entire lab.
These tanks and tools required significant resources to produce. Few labs in Soul Society had this capability.
"I went on a mission with Yoruichi yesterday to the World of the Living," Nanatsuki explained while unloading. "We took down the man behind the recent Reishi Shell incidents: Miyamoto Tetsuya. All this was taken from his lab."
"For him to construct something like this in the World of the Living… he must have had support from Soul Society," Aizen noted sharply.
"Right on point. You're very perceptive, Sōsuke," Nanatsuki replied warmly. "Miyamoto was controlling the Mizutani family from the shadows. Through them, he acquired souls with Shinigami potential and resources. That explosion of cult-like faith in Rukongai was due to him screening for potential Shinigami hosts."
"So he spread beliefs to gain influence among the people... a fast way to expand," Aizen murmured, thoughtful.
Then Nanatsuki brought out the largest tank.
Thanks to the chemical preservation, the humanoid Hollow inside still had active Reishi.
"Is that a Vasto Lorde Arrancar?" Aizen asked, puzzled—his reaction mirroring Nanatsuki's first impression.
"This one's the most valuable thing I brought back," Nanatsuki said with a grin.
Though he had gathered over a hundred Reishi Shells and tanks, none held more value than this Hollow.
Shells could be replicated. This creature was a one-in-a-million occurrence.
Even with the same time and resources, Miyamoto might never create another.
"More valuable than all the other specimens? If she were a live Vasto Lorde, sure... but she seems like a corpse. Or..." Aizen narrowed his eyes. "She's not a normal Vasto Lorde, is she?"
Her Reishi signature was inert—more like concentrated particles than a living flow. Definitely a preserved body.
"Not quite. She's a natural-born hybrid: half-human, half-Hollow," Nanatsuki said, adjusting the equipment to extract a blood sample.
"Half-human and half-Hollow? He achieved that?!" Aizen's eyes lit up. He and his teacher had spent years trying to hybridize Shinigami and Hollow Reishi—all resulting in unstable mutations. But this specimen looked stable.
A transparent tube at the tank's rear began drawing blood.
"His method differed from ours. He started with embryos—implanted Hollow essence into human souls to birth hybrids," Nanatsuki explained, attaching a vial.
"He used vast amounts of materials to cultivate just this one semi-stable being. Even so, she couldn't survive long without artificial support."
Nanatsuki began analyzing the blood sample.
His lab was now equipped to distinguish Reishi types: human, Hollow, or Shinigami.
"It really does contain both human and Hollow Reishi..." Aizen observed, watching the reagent paper shift color.
"She'll be a core research subject moving forward," Nanatsuki confirmed.
"If this hybrid is stable, why can't a Shinigami shell—with a stronger tolerance—handle Hollow energy...?" Aizen muttered.
"I have a theory," Nanatsuki said as he prepped the blood for further processing. "This hybrid's mother may have been different from typical souls."
He recalled a possibility.
After the Soul King was split, fragments of His essence scattered across the three realms. Some merged with existing souls, becoming part of humans, Shinigami, even Hollows.
Nanatsuki himself had once found a fragment in the remains of an ancient Hollow.
He suspected this hybrid's mother carried such a fragment.
It might have been what enabled her birth.
Without the fragment, all other experiments failed.
Miyamoto's success was partly coincidence—and partly fate.
Sadly, Nanatsuki hadn't found the mother's remains in the lab. The theory remained unconfirmed.
"Sōsuke, you've heard of the Soul King, haven't you?" Nanatsuki asked while mixing reagents.
He didn't want the extracted blood to go to waste. Following one of Miyamoto's formulas, he aimed to synthesize a new growth serum.
Though his left fingers were still immobile, he and Aizen had long developed seamless lab synergy. Aizen stepped in to grind the ingredients.
"Of course. The Soul King is the true ruler of Soul Society, residing in the palace high above," Aizen nodded. Years ago, he had often used Kyōka Suigetsu to sneak into noble archives and read their restricted texts.
"That's probably where you read about it," Nanatsuki said with a knowing smile.
Aizen froze. His hand paused mid-grind.
He knows!
Back when he had just joined the dojo, he hadn't trusted anyone and used to sneak out at night to read.
He thought he'd hidden it well.
Had his teacher also discovered the nature of Kyōka Suigetsu?
Was he being seen as deceitful?
His thoughts raced in silent panic.