After the door to Aizen's lab closed, Yoruichi leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, looking at Kensei Kenzuru with slight disapproval.
"Weren't you a bit too obedient just now?" Yoruichi raised an eyebrow. "Aizen says wait outside, so you just do it. Aren't you afraid she's doing some dangerous experiment behind your back?"
Kensei just smiled, hands behind his head, looking completely nonchalant. "Since Sōsuke has a plan, I just support her. Simple."
"Support?" Yoruichi almost laughed out loud at Kensei's matter-of-fact attitude. "You don't even know what she's doing, and you're all supportive? What if she's conducting some life-threatening experiment in there?"
Yoruichi felt a rare pang of jealousy. She wished she'd done some experiment that needed to be hidden from Soul Society too, just to enjoy some of Kensei's unwavering trust. Why did she have to be such a good person?
"Impossible." Kensei shook his head, his tone full of understanding of Sōsuke. "Sōsuke's wisdom is no less than mine. Why would she ever conduct an experiment that threatens her own life?"
"Besides, even if Sōsuke really died, I could just watch a few GGs to revive her."
Yoruichi just took it as Kensei joking again, snorted, and didn't say more. Continuing would make her sound like she was bad-mouthing Aizen behind her back.
Time passed bit by bit in their silence.
Kensei was fidgeting as if he had pins in his rear, changing positions seven or eight times in a short span. Now, bored out of his mind, he was lying with his head on Yoruichi's lap, studying her palm.
"Yoruichi-nee, do you think my current condition means there's no reproductive barrier between me and Hollows?"
"You really dare to think." Yoruichi's hand played with Kensei's hair. "Should I catch you a few female Menos to try it out with?"
"I didn't expect you to have such a scientific spirit, Yoruichi-nee. Fine, for the sake of science, I'll sacrifice myself once."
Yoruichi smacked the pretending-to-be-serious Kensei, her gaze worriedly fixed on the door to Aizen's lab.
She wondered how the experiment was progressing.
Suddenly, a faint ripple of spiritual pressure leaked from inside the lab.
Before the two could react, the leaking spiritual pressure skyrocketed. It carried the unique frenzy and chaos of a Hollow, erupting violently from the lab like a volcano.
"Tch, an accident after all, huh?"
Yoruichi already assumed a combat stance. This spiritual pressure meant Aizen had temporarily lost control.
"BOOM!!"
The barrier covering Aizen's lab finally reached its limit and was completely shattered from inside by a violent force. The tightly shut door exploded into countless fragments. Amidst the swirling dust, a strange figure stumbled out.
Yoruichi's pupils contracted sharply. The figure was Aizen, but not the familiar Aizen from memory.
Aizen's body was slightly hunched, a white bone mask covering half her face, revealing only a pair of eyes that were no longer their usual calm selves. Her clothes were mostly torn, her body surface covered in the same pale, bony skin as a Hollow, with irregular dark red patterns surfacing on it.
Frenzied spiritual pressure erupted from Aizen. Shinigami and Hollow powers were roughly mixed together. At this moment, Aizen was like a bomb about to explode.
"Aizen, snap out of it!"
Yoruichi shouted loudly, hoping to call back some of Aizen's consciousness.
But Aizen, whose body was turning Hollow, seemed not to hear at all, or simply ignored Yoruichi's shout. Her eyes, covered in black, scanned the surroundings, then firmly locked onto Kensei beside Yoruichi.
Yoruichi could clearly sense that the irrational Aizen held not just an urge to attack Kensei in her eyes, but also a deeper, twisted kind of craving.
"That's why I said you were making a mountain out of a molehill." Seeing this form, Kensei understood the cause and scratched his head in annoyance. "Should've just laid my cards on the table with you earlier."
The Hollowfied Aizen vanished suddenly—not the high-speed movement of a Shinigami using Shunpo, but something closer to a Hollow's Sonído. She reappeared right in front of Kensei, one hand already gripping his neck.
"Sōsuke, ah, Sōsuke," Kensei sighed, his tone carrying a bit of complaint. "You're so cruel, secretly entering Stage Two behind my back."
Not at all worried the irrational Aizen would snap his neck, Kensei remained as relaxed as if he were interacting with Aizen on a normal day.
"Yoruichi-nee, don't interfere. I need to teach this blockhead a good lesson."
As soon as Kensei finished speaking, the Hollowfied Aizen's other hand reached out. This time, the target wasn't Kensei's throat, but his chest.
This wasn't an attack. Or rather, not entirely.
The hand, covered in bony plates and slightly enlarged from Hollowfication, pressed roughly against Kensei's chest, fingers tightening. At the same time, Aizen's body, grown slightly cooler from Hollowfication, pressed against him, using all her strength to pin Kensei beneath her.
"Whoa! Sōsuke, are you molesting me?!"
Kensei was completely dumbfounded. He'd been ready to take advantage of the Hollowfication to give Sōsuke a good beating, but the situation had taken an unexpected turn. He hadn't expected the Hollowfied Aizen to pin him to the ground.
He felt Aizen's face press against the side of his neck, a distorted, electronic roar echoing in his ear, and could even feel something like a Hollow's fangs grazing his skin.
"I'm telling you, I'm a straight guy."
Kensei couldn't take it anymore. He was afraid if this continued, his Hollowfied bro would succeed.
"Damn Hollow! Pretending to be my good bro Sōsuke Aizen, trying to take advantage of me!"
Kensei forcefully pried open the arm Aizen had locked around him, then punched the kaiju away.
Seemingly not satisfied, Kensei erupted with astonishing speed, catching up to the flying Aizen. His palm pressed against her face—the mask had grown a bit more—and slammed her heavily into the ground.
"Good thing no one else saw, or my innocence would be gone."
Kensei wiped sweat that wasn't there from his forehead. Just thinking about the earlier scene gave him goosebumps, so he decided to throw a few more punches to vent properly.
A massive, dark red spiritual pressure gathered at Aizen's fingertips. Kensei knew exactly what this move was.
"Whoa! Tailed Beast Bomb!"
Quick as lightning, Kensei used brute force to twist the direction of Aizen's fingertips, avoiding damage to the surroundings. After all, once she switched forms later, these injuries would just reset.
"Bakudō #61, Rikujōkōrō!"
Six golden light plates appeared out of thin air, pinning Aizen's limbs and torso, firmly restricting her movement.
The Zanpakutō at Kensei's waist trembled slightly, as if pleased by Aizen's current state.
"Barely under control." Kensei breathed a sigh of relief. "Even Hollowfied, I can easily suppress Sōsuke with one hand. With just this, she thought she could—"
Kensei's words were cut off, not because the trapped Aizen attacked again.
The Hollowfied Aizen, temporarily bound by Rikujōkōrō, suddenly began to tremble violently. A beast-like roar sounded from her mouth. Her appearance, which had nearly become that of a Hollow, sprayed blood like a bursting water pump, followed by faint cracking sounds. Fine fissures spread continuously over her body, finally shedding like a shell from Aizen.
Only a brand new bone mask remained on Aizen's face. Though the eyes beneath the mask were still Hollow-like, a light of reason now flickered within them.
"Did she... succeed?"
Yoruichi found it hard to believe. This state perfectly matched the description Kensei had given earlier of a Shinigami mastering Hollowfication.
"I told you." Kensei walked forward with a smile, reaching out to touch the mask on Aizen's face. "Didn't expect you to beat me to it—Wait!"
Kensei's finger froze mid-air.
It seemed the struggle against the Hollow had drained too much mental energy. After regaining reason, Aizen no longer had the strength to support her body and fell straight into Kensei's arms.
Kensei looked at Aizen's long hair, which hadn't changed back after the Hollowfication ended, and felt the body in his arms, now more slender and soft.
His body went completely rigid. In just a few seconds, an unprecedented series of emotions flashed across Kensei's face: shock, disbelief, bewilderment, confusion...
Even the dullest brain could grasp a truth Kensei had never considered:
So, Hollowfication also changes your sex?
***
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