Chapter 42: Two Working People
After settling here, she used a Cero blast to carve out an underground hollow, then teamed up with Mizuma to visit a few construction material factories in the living world.
In just a few days, they built this spacious underground chamber.
Her efficiency with concrete was so absurdly high that Mizuma was left speechless — and even more so after watching how she did it.
Simply put, Ainicht Bionis was a scientist.
But unlike the Soul Society's popular fields of biological and reiryoku-based technology, hers was mechanical engineering.
Frankly speaking, assigning her as a lab supervisor had been one of Szayelaporro's more questionable management decisions.
From what Mizuma had observed over the past few months, Ainicht was extraordinarily skilled at designing and assembling machinery — to the point that she could hammer together a reiryoku-powered mechanical bird from nothing but scrap metal and a mallet.
That alone had opened Mizuma's eyes.
Her ongoing project, the "Autonomous Doll," was essentially a reiryoku-powered intelligent robot with combat capability comparable to an Adjuchas-level Hollow.
While that level of strength wasn't much use in the high-tier battlefield, it was, at the very least, stronger than Ainicht herself…
After becoming a Hollow, Ainicht had spent her existence hiding and surviving.
Later, when she came under Szayelaporro's command, she'd been more of a test subject than a researcher, given little chance to learn or experiment.
That meant all her technical knowledge must have been something she acquired while she was still alive — and just where in the human world could someone like that possibly have been trained?
Then again, this was the Bleach universe — a place where absurdity was normal.
If the Sternritter could have a transforming robot among them, then a mechanical engineering expert existing in Hueco Mundo wasn't that hard to swallow.
Anyway, she's my subordinate now, Mizuma thought.
---
"Yo, looks like you're pretty busy."
Walking up to the assembly table, Mizuma casually patted Ainicht on the shoulder — startling her enough that she nearly jumped out of her seat.
[TL: Assembly as in Living room? :/]
"Oh… it's the boss."
Ainicht instinctively ducked her head, then relaxed once she saw who it was.
"Did you… need something?"
Over the past few months, Mizuma's Messenger Clone had remained in the living world, studying kido and Spiritual Weapon crafting.
During that time, Ainicht — this timid, anxious Arrancar — had been his only regular conversational partner.
They got along well enough now that she could actually meet his gaze when speaking.
It was obvious her timidness came from years of living at the bottom of the food chain — a psychological scar from constant life-or-death fear.
She was the type whose affection level was ridiculously easy to raise.
Mizuma had just treated her like a normal subordinate for a few months, and already he could feel a faint… dependence from her.
Well, he supposed that counted as a kind of corporate-style PUA…
[TL: Yap 4!
PUA = PICK UP ARTIST.
"Corporate-style PUA," it's a tongue-in-cheek way of saying Mizuma was subtly manipulating his subordinate's emotions—not romantically, but in a workplace context—by giving her attention and validation that made her emotionally dependent on him, even if he didn't mean to.]
---
"Time to get to work," Mizuma said, stretching his joints. "Is Gundam Unit-01 ready? I'll take it."
"Ah—yes, sir! Just a moment!"
Ainicht hurriedly grabbed a small silver-white sphere from the corner of the assembly table and held it out with both hands.
"T-testing… I'll leave it to you, boss."
Taking the orb, Mizuma infused it with a trace of his reiryoku, then tossed it into an open space.
With a sharp click-clack of shifting metal, the sphere unfolded midair and expanded — forming into a two-meter-tall android-like construct.
It had solid limbs, a cylindrical torso, and a spherical head.
One hand held a shield, the other a sword.
Its proportions gave it a slightly goofy charm, but according to Ainicht, this "Autonomous Doll" possessed power on par with an Adjuchas-class Hollow.
When Mizuma had taken Ainicht away from Hueco Mundo, this had been her main research project.
Under Szayelaporro, she'd barely had time to work, serving mainly as a research subject and supervisor — the pace of progress was glacial.
In decades, she'd managed to assemble only half a prototype.
But once Mizuma provided her with freedom and all the materials she needed, the efficiency skyrocketed.
Now the prototype's development phase was complete, and it was time to begin performance testing.
Ainicht, of course, was far too scared to do that herself — so Mizuma took on the job, since he also needed something that could help differentiate his clone from his main body.
The Autonomous Doll ran toward him with quick, heavy steps, stopping in front of Mizuma in a guarded stance.
Its movements were smooth, fluid — not a hint of lag.
Looked fine to him.
Mizuma nodded, sending out a burst of reiryoku at a specific frequency.
Immediately, the doll jumped backward, shifting midair with a series of clicks and reverting into the small, floating silver orb once more.
…As for where the excess mass went, even Mizuma had no idea.
Then, he pulled out a rhombus-shaped, translucent crystal — something Ainicht called a "Garganta Crystal."
With a casual swipe through the air, a black cavity opened before him.
Mizuma stepped through without hesitation.
---
Meanwhile, somewhere in Rukongai.
"Looks like it failed, huh?"
Perched lazily on a tree branch, Ichimaru Gin sidestepped a Hollow's wild attack and reappeared a few meters away, his narrow eyes smiling faintly as he watched the beast thrash below.
Just a day ago, that raging Hollow had been a member of the Gotei 13.
He and nine others had been part of an advance unit sent to investigate the string of disappearances in Rukongai — until Gin ambushed them.
He'd slashed them with Shinsō, its blade coated in Hollowfication reagent, then stood aside to watch the results.
Soon, all nine of them broke down completely — their souls collapsing, turning into Hollows.
[TL 'behind-the-scens shenanigans' (BS): Originally 'Soon, all ten', changed it to nine.]
As with previous experiments, these low-ranking Shinigami-turned-Hollows were uncontrollably violent, attacking anything that moved.
Ordinarily, Gin would have been tasked with disposing of them afterward, but this time things were different.
These Hollows were bait for the 9th Division.
They couldn't die too quickly.
So Gin confined them to this forest, even leaving their tattered Shihakushōs intact, to make sure the 9th Division would notice.
Use the advance team to bait the 9th Division.
Then use the 9th Division to bait other captains.
Aizen's plan was simple — and brutally effective.
"Man…" Gin sighed, looking up at the sky. "Why does the boss always dump all the dirty work on the youngest guy?"
Maybe this was just the kind of hardship every startup faced — when each employee had to bleed themselves dry for performance while the returns were meager… just promises from the boss about the bright future ahead.
And Gin's case was even tougher.
Because, well — he was an undercover agent.
To avoid suspicion, an undercover had to appear even more hardworking than the regular staff.
And when your only colleague was an overachiever like Aizen, who shared the same dream of remaking the world, that meant Gin had to grind twice as hard just to keep up with the insanity.
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〔TL〕
Every 100 powerstones = 2 bonus ch.
Every 2 review after 100 ps = 1 bonus ch.