At that moment, Gremmy was a little excited.
For someone like him — someone who possessed the ability to do whatever he imagined— encountering a being that surpassed his imagination was always thrilling.
Because it meant…
His imagination had just gained a new frontier.
Right now, Gremmy stood deep within the boundless white desert.
Night hung over the world like a heavy black veil, wrapped tightly around the pale earth.
In this quiet world, a ghostly wind sometimes blew, but originally, this place was extremely dull — utterly useless to Gremmy's imagination.
Yet in the next instant, this desert of imagination was suddenly split open by a blinding light.
Wrapped entirely in radiance, a dignified and extraordinary figure trod lightly upon the void. Between them was only a thin layer of Spirit Sand, as if this being did not wish even the filth of the empty void — the struggling dust — to touch him.
The white sand also reflected that light like gold.
The man's face was hidden behind that dazzling brilliance; Gremmy could only sense the calm, solemn aura he exuded — like the salvation of this dark world, the one and only light.
And now, he was gazing down upon this barren land with eyes that seemed to hold both compassion and deep thought.
His form shone brilliantly.
Otherworldly divine power flowed between the two of them, and Gremmy's eyes grew brighter and brighter, filled with uncontrollable excitement.
In that instant, Yoshio did not open his mouth, yet a sacred, expansive voice echoed directly in Gremmy's heart.
"Orochi."
Those two words were carved deeply into Gremmy's mind.
In the next moment, that glorious figure bloomed once more; its endless radiance completely suppressed even the moonlight, as if the entire world had fallen into a sea of white.
Even Gremmy could no longer see anything — but he no longer needed to see.
To truly feel this world, to experience this mighty power, he had to use his imagination.
Gradually, the divine power faded.
The blazing light was swallowed by the surrounding darkness.
The god's body also vanished in that same instant.
No one knew how much time had passed.
When Gremmy finally returned to himself, everything was gone.
"…"
He lowered his head and looked at the Spirit Sand beneath his feet.
The mysterious being that called itself the Orochi had disappeared, but the power it displayed was deeply etched into this land.
The Spirit Sand below had absorbed sufficient radiance, now shining with a golden brilliance, dyeing the desolate white into the color of a bountiful harvest.
Gremmy squatted down and stretched out his hand, scooping up a handful of golden sand.
"Gremmy!"
At that moment, Lilotto's voice came faintly from afar.
Gremmy still stared at the sand in his palm without replying.
Not until Lilotto ran up to him did he finally show a smile, as though he had just carved everything he experienced into his imagination.
"What just happened here?!" Lilotto asked, clearly shocked.
Just now, an intense radiance had bloomed in this spot, far too conspicuous within this dark Hueco Mundo. Even from far away, Lilotto could see that light.
A moment later, Baelz and Candice also rushed over, their faces full of doubt.
The three of them gazed at this area, which looked completely different from its surroundings, and their expressions unconsciously turned solemn.
Gremmy loosened his fingers. The golden grains of sand slipped one by one through the gaps.
"I told you," he said slowly. "I saw a god—"
"Do you believe that?"
…
Whether Lilotto and the others believed him or not, Yoshio had already taken Gremmy's split body and left.
When that blinding radiance erupted, he had already used his Blade that Rends the Heart to sever him. After the new spirit body separated from Gremmy's main body, Yoshio elementalized her physical form and escaped with her.
In that moment, he looked at the person who had emerged from Gremmy's body and unconsciously stroked his chin.
"…Just as I thought."
It was a woman.
She had medium-length dark-crimson hair and about 1.65 meters tall.
Her eyes were unfocused, utterly vacant — which was only natural.
Because this woman had no consciousness and no intelligence at all.
Not a single trace of subjective autonomy.
Because she had no head.
Gremmy's true body was the brain.
This physical body was merely something his brain had imagined into being. Now, this dark-red haired girl had an empty body with no brain.
This was the first time Yoshio had ever seen such a bizarre split body.
Could this really be called a lifeform?
Without a brain and without consciousness, could such an existence even be considered a Shinigami?
Without consciousness, there was no way to communicate.
Yoshio pondered deeply for a while, but very quickly, he understood the use of this girl.
She was like a combat mecha.
Once Yoshio injected a portion of his spiritual power into her, he immediately gained a new field of vision.
Sure enough — she recognized a master, and seemed built to be controlled by Yoshio's consciousness.
She was the complete opposite of Gremmy.
Gremmy was full of ideas, because he was the brain. His opposite would be an existence with no ideas of her own, only able to move under the mercy of another, acting solely according to another's will.
This concept was quite novel, distinctly different from an ordinary clone.
If she did not receive any orders at all, the girl would not move even a little, and there was no need for any fine-tuned micro-control. As long as she received broad, general commands, she would act.
For example, if he allowed her to fight, Yoshio would not need to micromanage every step. The battle command was just a single word, and her body would automatically engage in combat. It wasn't a rigid, mechanical fight like a simple AI, either.
"Since you don't have any consciousness…" Yoshio said softly. "I'll give you a name."
He thought for a while, then spoke another name.
"Chris."
His own avatar of light was called the Orochi, so this vessel would be called "Chris."
Up to now, there were only a few "gods" he intended to fictionalize.
One was the Hollow King, of course disguised using a piece he had split from the real Hollow King.
One was the Primordial Moon, disguised as the Great Mother of Time who could destroy worlds.
One was the Orochi he had just mentioned to Gremmy — which he manifested using his light avatar.
Moreover, he possessed the abilities of the Goddess of Death, allowing him to transform into a goddess who brought endings to all things around her.
But this last role still lacked a suitable face.
As for Gabriel's divine power, that was also a god-realm ability, but it relied too heavily on water. Unlike these avatar-type powers that were purely transformative, Gabriel's didn't fit this structure well enough, so Yoshio temporarily put it aside.
For now, with the Hollow King, Primordial Moon, Orochi, and Goddess of Death, he had no intention of creating more external gods.
These inherent gods, together with the three external gods that were the direct antitheses of the Spirit King, were already more than enough to eventually bring their fictional ultimate goal into reality.
After sorting all this out in his mind, Yoshio's heart moved again — and in the next instant, Chris moved as well.
A violet flame bloomed in her hand.
The moment that fire appeared, the Spirit Sand around her began to vanish as if being erased from existence.
This was Chris's ability — Fire of Nothingness, a power that turned all things into nothing.
Gremmy's power was to imagine things and phenomena of the world.
Its true opposite was a power that erased things and phenomena from the world entirely.
This ability was extremely powerful.
"Not bad at all," Yoshio murmured, very satisfied with Chris's power.
Gremmy himself was already a powerful man; the main reason he failed was because of his personality. This time, with Aizen's help, he had become even stronger.
On the surface, he did not seem much different from before, but the fact that Chris had split off at all showed that Gremmy was definitely hiding part of his strength.
Yoshio himself should have expected such scheming from him.
It seemed that after spending long enough around Aizen, Gremmy had grown darker at heart, his thoughts tending more and more toward black.
Yoshio was the same.
After so many years in contact with Aizen, he, too, had developed a habitual mindset of disguise.
Where there was an actor, there would inevitably be many more actors gathered around.
Gremmy's power had already been formidable, and now he had taken another step forward. Within the entire Gotei 13, there were likely only a handful who still had the ability to counter him.
The crucial part wasn't just the increase in raw strength.
Gremmy's ability was powerful, but against a clever opponent, he was not hard to defeat. Even someone as reckless as Kenpachi had reminded him not to think too much about him.
If he faced someone like Aizen, a man like Kyōraku Shunsui could force Gremmy to doubt his own existence, trapping him in spirals of self-questioning until he essentially killed himself through his own thoughts.
But now, Gremmy's mentality had changed. He would not be as easily broken as before.
The second change was that his eyes had opened to the wider world, his imagination having become far richer.
Yoshio estimated that unless Aizen himself advanced further — reaching the very limits of a Shinigami — he might not be able to easily handle the current Gremmy.
Which meant that Chris, whose abilities were roughly equal to Gremmy's, was also very strong.
Good. What mattered most for a division was the captain. Once you had a leader, finding subordinates would always be easier.
Yoshio ordered Chris to act freely for the time being, then turned and left.
In this trip through Hueco Mundo, he had many other things to do.
…
Compared to Yoshio, who moved through Hueco Mundo practically unimpeded, Hitsugaya's journey through this world could only be described as grueling.
Because…
Hueco Mundo was simply too vast.
There were far too many Hollows and Arrancar, both real and unreal, scattered across this endless desert.
After Aizen occupied Las Noches, he launched a large-scale recruitment, but those Hollows he summoned were only a tiny fraction of the total Hollows that existed here.
In this enormous world, there were likely many powerful Hollow fortresses that had never even heard the name "Las Noches."
A Shinigami like Hitsugaya was bound to entangle himself in countless battles with these great Hollows.
Shortly after parting ways with Yoshio, he had already experienced several fights.
"The Hollows that appear in this world really are different…"
Hitsugaya quietly let out a sigh.
Most Hollows that appeared in the human world were cowardly trash of Hueco Mundo, unable to devour other Hollows here and thus forced to go to the living world to bully wandering souls.
Karakura Town was no exception. Aside from the previous Hollow Bait Incident that had drawn powerful Hollows frequently, at most other times the Hollows that appeared there were, relatively speaking, weak.
They were only strong compared to Hollows in other parts of the human world.
By contrast, any Hollow that could survive in Hueco Mundo at all was an elite.
Under the pale moonlight above, Hitsugaya could feel the Hollows growing more frenzied and powerful. The light from that moon seemed to shine blood-red like a demon's gaze.
Having wandered through Hueco Mundo for some time, he felt as if he had been infected by this world's fallen, wrathful element. His mood grew increasingly irritable and impulsive.
In such a world, the concept of time almost seemed to disappear.
He could only count the passage of hours silently in his heart.
In the moonlight, his figure looked even thinner than usual. A strong wind blew, and the only sound that accompanied it was his own breathing.
Suddenly, he stopped moving, his entire body tensing with caution.
The wind died down.
From the distance, something was approaching.
An abnormally small, nearly imaginary silhouette.
Usually, even a little Hollow was about the size of a human. This kind of small Hollow mostly appeared in the human world.
But this one…
This Hollow was less than human-sized, only about thirty or forty centimeters tall — about the size of a pet dog.
In fact, this kind of tiny Hollow was rather fortunate to live in Hueco Mundo.
If you were strong, you were forced to enter the food chain of devouring life and death. But precisely because this one was so weak, it only needed to breathe within this spiritually rich environment, protected by the presence of countless other Hollows, to barely survive.
Other Hollows likely wouldn't even bother to look down on such a speck. Even if they passed by, they probably wouldn't eat it unless they were absolutely starving.
That was why these ultra-small Hollows could actually endure in Hueco Mundo.
It was the first time Hitsugaya had ever seen such a Hollow in person, but he had once read descriptions like this in his textbooks.
The dog Hollow was indeed quite cute.
It showed no aggression at all. Two little horns stuck out from its white mask.
The only surprising thing was that a number had been carved into the fur on its back.
"35."
What did that number represent?
Hitsugaya frowned slightly, but he didn't dwell on it.
He had no desire to slaughter the little thing, so he sidestepped it and continued forward.
Yet the puppy trotted after him.
Hitsugaya glanced back, a little helpless. "Don't follow me. If you stick with me, you'll get drawn into fights. When that happens… you'll die."
His opponent was simply too weak. Even if Hitsugaya held no killing intent at all, the stray force from any clash with a powerful Hollow would be enough to snuff this one out.
But the puppy clearly didn't understand him. It only treated him like its own master and followed him tirelessly.
"…"
Seeing this, Hitsugaya could only sigh to himself.
In the end, it was just a Hollow.
It wasn't his responsibility to protect its life.
Thinking so, he continued onward.
But this time, he only took a few more steps before abruptly stopping again.
His expression turned solemn — much more serious than when he had first seen the puppy.
This time…
Something truly strong was approaching.
Hitsugaya's right hand was already gripping the hilt of Hyōrinmaru behind his back, ready to draw at any moment.
That vast spiritual pressure swept closer, mixed with a mountainous, crushing might.
In the next moment, a gigantic monstrosity stepped into his field of view.
Hitsugaya drew in a deep breath and stared fixedly at the approaching Hollow.
It was towering.
At the top of its head were four oddly shaped protrusions. Symmetrical red markings spread across both cheeks, and the mask that should have covered its entire face had been shattered, leaving only the portion around the jaw.
Of course, given its enormous size, even that fragment of mask might be bigger than an ordinary person's entire face.
The Hollow hole was located in the center of its chest.
It wore a white garment, and at its waist hung a Zanpakutō.
A… shattered mask.
Hitsugaya's heart tightened. Since coming to Hueco Mundo, he had seen many Hollows, but now, he had finally encountered an Arrancar.
However, the big man didn't seem to be here for him.
It strode closer, twisting its neck, and spoke in a somewhat malicious tone:
"I've been lookin' all over for you, Kukkapūro."
Its eyes had been fixed all along on the puppy behind Hitsugaya. Each step it took made the sand shudder, and the spiritual pressure surging from its body was terrifyingly ferocious.
It utterly ignored Captain Hitsugaya, as if the only thing in its gaze was that little dog.
"Bankai. Daiguren Hyōrinmaru!"
Hitsugaya gulped down a breath and immediately activated his Bankai.
He knew very well: these Arrancar were all beings of great power.
The best — and only — way to face them was with a Bankai from the very start.
As his Bankai spread, Hyōrinmaru's immense spiritual pressure burst out of his body, even affecting the celestial phenomena in Hueco Mundo. An extreme cold swept across the surroundings, the temperature plunging to a deadly low.
Only then did the giant monster — Yammy — finally look properly at Hitsugaya.
"Huh? I didn't even notice you at first," Yammy said coldly. "So there's actually such a tiny Shinigami here."
He grinned, his monstrous body and booming voice like thunder. "A Shinigami, diving into Hueco Mundo of his own accord? You here to deliver food?"
Hitsugaya wasn't tall, but he was still much larger than the thirty-centimeter puppy.
And that puppy was currently hiding behind Hitsugaya.
No matter how you looked at it, it was impossible that Yammy truly hadn't seen Hitsugaya.
Yet the Arrancar talked as if he'd only just now noticed him.
"If you don't need those eyes," Hitsugaya said in a low voice, "then you won't be needing them for much longer."
He wasn't actually angered by Yammy's words. He simply raised his blade, and Hyōrinmaru's true power began to show.
When his sword fell, a massive dragon of ice erupted forward, roaring straight at Yammy.
The ice dragon was even larger than Yammy's body.
It rushed to swallow him whole and, in an instant, froze him solid.
It was like a titanic ice dragon biting down on another huge monster, finally devouring the creature in its jaws.
Instantly frozen.
But Hitsugaya did not relax.
He grabbed the puppy Yammy had called "Kukkapūro," and with a flash step, vanished from sight.
When he reappeared at a distant spot, the puppy was gone.
Since this little Hollow was Yammy's apparent target, it might prove useful later. Hitsugaya had taken it away from the battlefield in advance.
Battles at his level could so easily harm innocents, especially when he used the sky-falling powers of his Bankai. Even now, Kukkapūro was already shivering from the cold.
With it out of the way, Hitsugaya could finally fight with his full strength.
After Hitsugaya left, Yammy let out a low snort and shattered the ice binding him. He glanced at the small Shinigami and sneered:
"You're a Shinigami, and you're protectin' a Hollow? That's beyond stupid."
"I'd say what you lot are doing is even more absurd," Hitsugaya replied calmly. "Hollows actually caring about Shinigami — that's what's truly ridiculous."
Yammy barked a laugh, then abruptly punched.
He moved incredibly fast.
Hitsugaya froze for a moment, and from Yammy's fist, an intense red beam of light shot out — far too fast for him to dodge.
Boom!
Hitsugaya was blasted away by the beam.
Then dozens more red beams fired in succession.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Continuous explosions shook the land of Hueco Mundo. The waves of white sand erupted outward like a furious sea beneath the night sky.
At the center of the explosions, a massive barrier of ice crystals formed, blocking the barrage of red beams in front of Hitsugaya.
Even so, cracks crazed across its surface like broken glass.
Wings of ice spread behind him as Hitsugaya burst up from a giant crater in the ground.
"Incredible…" he muttered. "So that's your ability?"
"Heh? That was a Bala," Yammy sneered. Given his bulky body, his words rumbled like thunder. "The power's a bit weaker, sure, but the speed is twenty times that of a normal Cero! If you wanna see a real Cero…"
As he spoke, a mass of blazing red light began to condense in his mouth again.
A real Cero.
And that earlier attack had only been a fake.
The energy built up in an instant, then shot out with blinding speed.
There was no blocking this one.
Hitsugaya hurriedly flash-stepped aside.
The beam of red light brushed past him, streaking into the distance, carving a deep and vast canyon into the Spirit Sand. The shockwave blasted everything forward, ending with another tremendous explosion.
Such destructive force…
Hitsugaya was secretly shocked. Even that Bala had been terrifying. If he had taken the attack head-on without dodging, he would have been seriously injured by now.
"You're really gettin' on my nerves, little bug, skittering around like that!" Yammy roared angrily when he saw Hitsugaya dodge again. "Let's see you hide from this one!"
He gathered another Bala.
This one formed even faster, and the power was clearly greater than before.
"What…?!"
Hitsugaya once again dodged sideways.
The Bala ripped through the air, its searing power almost seeming to ignite Hueco Mundo's atmosphere.
Before Hitsugaya could fully process how powerful that second Bala had been, Yammy's massive body suddenly appeared right in front of him.
What…
So fast!
He hadn't expected such speed from a body that huge. Using Sonído, Yammy appeared less than two meters away.
And the next punch was already coming.
Hitsugaya couldn't evade this one. The blow hit him squarely and sent him crashing into the sand below.
With a thunderous impact, his body slammed into the desert. Sand and dust fountained up.
"Ryūsenka!"
In the very next instant, Hitsugaya burst up from the cloud of dust again, his blade shining with icy light as he slashed at Yammy.
Yammy swatted his palm forward, swatting Hitsugaya like a mosquito.
Hitsugaya was knocked down again, but this time, his entire body suddenly became wrapped in thick ice. The ice twisted and warped around Yammy's frame, finally forming into a gigantic cross.
That enormous cross stood upright on the land of Hueco Mundo, as if preparing to execute Yammy upon it.
Hitsugaya steadied himself on the ground and gripped his Zanpakutō once more, thrusting it toward the frozen Yammy.
Yet even that weighty cross of ice couldn't hold Yammy for long.
"Damn… brat!"
Yammy bellowed and shattered the ice.
Faint flames licked across his body, fueled by his intensifying rage, quickly melting the shattered ice scattered around him.
Seeing Hitsugaya charging at him yet again, he smashed another fist forward.
Boom!
Hitsugaya was caught off-guard. Another direct hit.
This time, Yammy didn't let up. His fist remained pressed into Hitsugaya's chest as he drove him down and slammed him into the sand.
Boom!
The punch hammered Hitsugaya into the desert.
The soft sand, when burdened by such force and such speed, suddenly felt harder than steel.
A deafening boom rang out. Hitsugaya's pupils dilated, his limbs splayed as if his bones were shattered. The massive force shook his entire body — he spat out a mouthful of blood.
Damn it.
He still hadn't fully mastered his true Bankai.
Only when the ice flowers behind him completely withered would he enter his most perfect state.
If someone were here to help him delay long enough, Hitsugaya would someday erupt with terrifying power, rising in an instant to stand among the top fighting forces of all the captains.
But as long as those ice flowers had not yet fully fallen, his Bankai could not exert its peak.
Even so, no matter how badly he was beaten, he was still a captain-class Shinigami. He was by no means weak — yet in front of this man, he was being completely overwhelmed.
"Heh!"
Watching the bloodied Hitsugaya lying in the sand, Yammy laughed in satisfaction.
"A mere Shinigami dares to invade Hueco Mundo? That's the end of you!"
"Now then… where'd Kukkapūro go?" He clicked his tongue, annoyed. "My sensing ain't that sharp to begin with, and I still lost track of that damn mutt."
He lifted his foot, as if stomping on a rice grain stuck in a meatloaf.
At that moment, Hitsugaya, who had collapsed on the ground, struggled to lift his Zanpakutō, murmuring quietly:
"Sennen Hyōrō…"
In an instant, a great volume of water surged around Yammy's raised foot, immediately crystallizing into ice.
The moment he stepped down, his leg froze solid like a sculpture.
Hitsugaya's Bankai grew stronger with time. At its most extreme, it would become his true Bankai, but even without reaching that state, the accumulation of moisture in the air continually amplified Hyōrinmaru's power.
Every attack so far, and even the presence of atmospheric bodies, had been gathering water vapor into the air.
The more he fought, the more moisture built up, and the stronger his next technique became.
At this instant, the power of this "Sennen Hyōrō" was exceedingly strong. After freezing Yammy's leg, Hitsugaya didn't dare rest, immediately fleeing from the area where the titanic foot was about to fall.
He rolled away, trying to return to his original position — and the moment he did, the great frozen block shattered again.
With a single stomp, Yammy crushed the remains of his own leg's ice prison, but thankfully, Hitsugaya had already escaped before the stomp actually landed.
"What?!"
Hitsugaya was shocked. He hadn't expected the Sennen Hyōrō to last such a short time.
Impossible.
When he first used Bankai, his ice had been able to hold Yammy for quite a while. Why was it, now that there was even more water vapor gathered, that his second-strongest technique could only freeze him for this brief a moment?
"Wait…"
A terrible thought flashed across his mind.
Was he really the only one getting stronger in this battle?
Or was this man also getting stronger?
Yes.
Yammy's body had become bigger.
When he first appeared, he had been around three to four meters tall. Now, he was already a towering six or seven meters.
And a red glow now suffused his entire figure, flames burning faintly on his shoulders.
Yammy's ability was the Raging Beast, converting rage into power. The angrier he became, the stronger his strength.
If he were only an ordinary "Raging Beast," that would be one thing. But Yoshio had once handed him the evil node — the Burner.
Combined with that malignant energy, Yammy's power had risen dramatically. The two had fused with each other, growing stronger and stronger as they interwove.
Now, not only had his already dense body grown colossal, but his very rage had taken on physical form, burning like a material flame.
If Yammy had once been somewhat unworthy of the title of the Ninth Espada —
(after all, any of the top nine Espada could even qualify as the Zero Espada) —
Now, there was no question he deserved the name.
If he ever fully unleashed the combined power of the Raging Beast and the Burning, he might surpass even the strongest — Starrk — and possess the qualifications to become a true Zero Espada.
Of course, he was still far from fully releasing that power.
"I'm really pissed off now!"
Yammy snarled, his voice so loud that if it had echoed into the world above, it would have sounded like an explosion.
His rage shook the ground.
Another Cero began gathering in his mouth, but this time, the Cero itself seemed to burn like fire.
Boom!
Immense power burst forth, the terrifying energy streaking towards Hitsugaya in an instant.
The explosion that followed was beyond imagination, like a nuclear blast.
Sand and dust mushroomed into a towering cloud, the fierce energy rushing upward and tearing apart the oppressive, gloomy clouds in the sky.
Moonlight poured down unimpeded, painting the site of the explosion in a strange, eerie glow.
In this dreadful world, Yammy — the Burning — stood like a giant, looking down upon everything.
Now, his height had already reached sixty meters. With a body this gigantic, no one would ever doubt the might behind his attacks.
Looking down at the vast crater in front of him, his eyes flashed with savage delight, and he burst out laughing.
"A captain-class Shinigami… that's all?"
This Cero had obliterated everything for kilometers, turning the front into a dark abyssal crater. Yammy himself had unleashed the attack from within its range.
As for that little ant…
No Shinigami could survive such force.
Satisfied with his own strike, Yammy turned away, heading toward an area that remained unscathed.
"Kukkapūro!"
He continued calling for the Hollow's name, complaining as he walked:
"My time out's almost up. If you don't come back, I'm gonna kill this mutt myself!"
As he grumbled, he suddenly lifted his head again, staring up at the moon hanging in the sky.
"…That Shinigami…"
No one knew who he was speaking to. Perhaps he merely wanted to mutter to himself, but given his enormous size, even the smallest whisper sounded like thunder in this world.
"Take this as a sacrifice from you. You want more power, don't you?"
…
No reply came for a long time.
Yammy suddenly let out a bored growl and strode forward.
His body was gigantic, yet surprisingly flexible, and his speed was astonishing. While others might manage only a meter per step, he could cover dozens of meters in a single stride. Before long, he had left that place, continuing his search for Kukkapūro.
Not until he had been gone for a long while did something stir in his trail.
From the first deep footprint he'd left behind, an arm suddenly reached out.
A hand broke through the Spirit Sand — and from beneath it, a man dragged himself up.
Hitsugaya Tōshirō.
"Urgh…"
He looked wretched and panted heavily.
Fortunately, after using the Sennen Hyōrō, he had used an ice decoy technique, splitting his presence between his true body and an ice construct.
So when Yammy shattered the Hitsugaya he saw, he had actually destroyed the ice stand-in Hitsugaya had crafted.
Hitsugaya had used the same trick once before to deceive Tokinada. This time, it had quite literally saved his life.
Of course, he had taken a gamble.
He'd remembered Yammy complaining that his ability to sense spiritual pressure was crude and limited. That was the only reason he risked using this method.
Otherwise, Yammy might not have noticed the trick at first, but the moment he broke the decoy, he would have likely checked the area again with his spiritual sense and found the real Hitsugaya.
Fortunately, just as Yammy himself had boasted, his spiritual sensing was indeed weak. Hitsugaya only needed to avoid his line of sight.
Even so, the force of Yammy's Cero had been too overwhelming.
Even hiding behind him, with most of the blast blocked by Yammy's own body, the residual force still left Hitsugaya badly wounded.
But Yammy, having confirmed his death, didn't even look back before turning to leave.
Hitsugaya hadn't dared to relax at that moment — he had been grievously injured, yes, but what truly shocked him were Yammy's last two sentences.
The first:
His time outside was almost over.
This revealed two important points.
First, that this monstrous being clearly belonged to some organized group. And the thought of who could possibly control such a creature was horrifying.
Anyone could tell at a glance that this monster was irritable and impossible to reason with. Men like that were never easy to control — especially not when they possessed power of this magnitude.
To suppress him, to make him obey organizational rules, his handler must be vastly stronger.
Could it be… the Hollow King?
In Hitsugaya's mind, only the Hollow King possessed such strength.
But something didn't quite fit.
The Hollow King was clearly a loner, the purest form of Hollow. Why would such a being need subordinates?
All other Hollows were nothing but his fuel.
Twice the Hollow King had attacked Soul Society, and both times, he had come alone.
So Hitsugaya did not believe Yammy was the Hollow King's subordinate.
In that case…
Did Hueco Mundo harbor some terrifying entity besides the Hollow King?
He thought of Urahara Kisuke. After all, Arrancar were the result of Urahara's forbidden research, but something still didn't add up — Urahara shouldn't possess power of this level.
During that very first battle in Karakura Town, the Shinigami had clashed with Urahara and his companions. Hitsugaya hadn't yet been a captain at that time, but he had been present, and he was certain:
Urahara Kisuke had never displayed such overwhelming power.
Would Hollows really thank him so devoutly?
Impossible.
Hollows recognized only strength. Even if you helped them achieve their Arrancar forms, if your power wasn't sufficient, they wouldn't acknowledge you — much less obey any rules you attempted to impose.
Could Urahara Kisuke be hiding his true power?
Had he reached a level comparable to the Hollow King?
Hitsugaya's heart grew heavy. If that were true…
It would be catastrophic.
The second half of Yammy's statement was even more terrifying:
He had spoken of offering a sacrifice in return for greater power granted from elsewhere.
Who was he sacrificing to?
And could that mysterious being truly bestow an even more terrifying power upon an already monstrous Yammy?
Nothing had happened in the end, but that was likely because Hitsugaya had not actually died.
No death meant no true sacrifice.
So, naturally, the unknown existence had no reason to grant Yammy more power.
But if Hitsugaya really had died, completing the sacrifice, would the being Yammy prayed to actually empower him in response?
Hueco Mundo…
Just what had changed here?
Why were there suddenly so many things he could not understand?
…