A shadow slipped through the laboratory doors. As it faded, Nanatsuki stepped into view.
Mayuri Kurotsuchi stood at the center of a tangle of experimental apparatus.
Nanatsuki walked up and peered into the incubation tank before Mayuri—a fetal infant was developing inside.
"This is Nemuri No. 6?" Nanatsuki examined the embryo. He could sense faint pulses of Reiatsu emanating from within. "The condition looks quite good."
"Nemuri No. 6?" Mayuri's bloodshot eyes twitched. He raised a hand and gestured to a nearby table where unidentifiable lumps of dissected flesh lay. "That's over there."
"So you're cultivating Nemuri No. 7 now?" Nanatsuki glanced at the dismembered remains. Nemuri No. 6 had grown to the equivalent of a two- or three-year-old child, but it was clearly flawed from the start.
"Exactly!"
"She is Nemuri No. 7!"
"I've discovered a potential solution to the lifespan limitation of artificial souls!"
"I embedded a forced cell-division accelerator in the pituitary gland to break through the division limit of artificial soul cells. It should absolutely surpass the theoretical cap and allow Nemuri No. 7 to keep growing!"
"Of course… this could cause uncontrolled growth, so I modified the basal ganglia in the brain and linked it directly to the parietal lobe for regulation."
"Based on my calculations, this plan is highly viable!"
Mayuri was elated as he laid out his theory and the practice that followed.
"Sounds like Nemuri No. 7 might actually surpass the limit." Nanatsuki nodded softly.
He remembered that Mayuri's daughter and lieutenant, Nemu Kurotsuchi, was in fact Nemuri No. 7.
The previous iterations—Nemuri No. 1 through 6—had all failed, but each attempt brought him closer to success through incremental refinements.
"I'm finally on the right path!" Mayuri declared confidently. This embryo's parameters matched every expectation he had.
"So, what brings you here, Captain?"
Mayuri suddenly recalled that Nanatsuki wouldn't come for nothing.
"I just came to check in. You've been locked up in here for so long, Akon was getting worried. You've also cut off all spiritual detection—no one outside could sense what's happening in here." Nanatsuki smiled. "Akon's a capable assistant. Give him a bit more trust."
"Tch. Needless sentimentality," Mayuri replied with disdain, but still reached over and pressed a button on the desk. The laboratory doors hissed open.
Akon entered, visibly relieved to see Mayuri safe.
Spiritual research wasn't without danger. With no word from Mayuri for over a month—and zero detectable Reiatsu inside—he'd grown understandably concerned.
"The embryo needs a nutrient change. You take care of that," Mayuri said, tossing a document at Akon. "Everything's in there. Read it yourself. I'm going to rest."
"Go on, get some proper sleep. I'll handle everything else," Akon nodded as he caught the file.
Nanatsuki took the Spiritual Detection Amplifier and returned to Hueco Mundo, intending to use it to locate Starrk.
After several minutes of calibration, he successfully activated the device.
"Ten times... I can sense Nel and the others," he muttered. His spiritual perception expanded dramatically, quickly picking up the Reiatsu of Nel and her group—far from Las Noches. Normally, this distance would render their presence undetectable.
The amplifier could increase his spiritual detection range by thousands of times. But at such extremes, precision suffered. At max output, it could only detect Reiatsu above lieutenant level.
"Fifty times... a hundred... five hundred... The number of Menos Grande has surged... no wonder Soul Society periodically sends expeditions to cull their numbers."
Nanatsuki continued adjusting the multiplier, detecting countless Gillians.
More than twenty years ago, the Shinigami had purged a large number of Gillians. Now their population had rebounded significantly.
Hollows reproduced rapidly—once over a hundred Hollows cannibalized one another, they could form a single Menos Grande.
"Three thousand times... much fewer now. I can't even detect the weaker Gillians anymore." At this level, the amplifier's resolution became extremely poor—even standard Gillians vanished from his awareness.
"Five thousand times... Hm? This Reiatsu pulse!"
A powerful spiritual pressure suddenly spiked on the edge of his perception—at captain-class level. It immediately drew Nanatsuki's attention.
Such strength was rare. Even Grimmjow hadn't reached that level yet.
This could only be one person—his target.
Nanatsuki shut off the Spiritual Detection Amplifier and headed straight for the source.
After a long journey, he reached a distant region of Hueco Mundo, far from Las Noches.
There, seated atop a sand dune, was a humanoid Hollow.
Half of its head was still encased in a white wolf-shaped bony mask, and gray fur covered its body.
Nanatsuki's interface revealed the details:
[Coyote Starrk]
[Talent: S]
[Reiatsu: Lv90]
[Reputation Level: Stranger]
[Status: Calm]
It was Starrk.
Nanatsuki's eyes swept across Starrk's mask. The wolf skull fragment was incomplete.
But with Starrk's power, it clearly hadn't been shattered in battle—it had naturally fallen away.
He was on the verge of evolving into a Vasto Lorde.
'So he hasn't reached Vasto Lorde yet?' Nanatsuki's heart stirred with excitement. If he could reach Starrk before that evolution, he might gain a massive amount of EXP.
The early appearance of the Hōgyoku meant Nanatsuki had begun manufacturing Arrancar ahead of the original timeline.
Under his guidance, Nel and Harribel had advanced quickly—already surpassing Starrk's stage.
"A Shinigami?"
As Nanatsuki studied Starrk, the latter was also sizing up the new arrival.
The black Shihakushō and white haori made Nanatsuki's identity obvious.
"That's right," Nanatsuki landed before him.
"This place is remote enough..." Starrk sighed. He assumed this Shinigami had come to fight. "I'd rather not waste strength on something so pointless."
Starrk's personality resembled Kyōraku Shunsui's—lazy, disinterested, lacking the will to fight.
That's why he had distanced himself from Las Noches. Too much conflict there.
"There's not a single Hollow around here. Don't you get lonely?" Nanatsuki asked with a soft smile.
"Lonely?" Starrk raised an eyebrow. The Shinigami's tone was not what he expected—not confrontational. "Of course I do. But... it's hard to find companions."
"Then… do you long for one?" Nanatsuki asked gently.