Reincarnation Games: Yukino's Mother Is Too Forward

Makoto stared at Aizen for a long while, then said, "Arrancarization can be a collaboration, but it cannot be led by you. We can exchange technical knowledge."

With that, Makoto tilted his head toward Psykos.

Psykos stepped out from the crowd and stood half a step beside Makoto.

Makoto said to Aizen, "Tell her everything you know about Arrancarization research. We will handle the Arrancarization ourselves."

Aizen's thoughts darkened.

He naturally understood the implication of Makoto's words... cooperation was cooperation, but the Vasto Lorde of Hueco Mundo would not become Aizen's experimental subjects. The initiative for Arrancarization had to remain in their own hands.

Makoto didn't trust him. After all, in the original work, Aizen had pulled more than one dirty trick in his Hollowfication experiments.

Then, Aizen glanced again at Psykos.

'There were researchers in Hueco Mundo focused on Arrancarization as well?' Aizen filed away this information.

"Very well." Aizen agreed.

Although not being able to lead the Arrancarization project meant he couldn't secretly tamper with these Vasto Lorde during the process,

And unlike in the future when he controlled the Espada through the Hogyoku's life-and-death switch, at least he still had Kyoka Suigetsu as his trump card.

As long as he held that card, no matter how strong Makoto's Vasto Lorde were, at the critical moment they would be nothing more than puppets under his blade.

With that confidence, Makoto's proposal wasn't entirely unacceptable.

Then, Makoto spoke again: "I have one more request."

Tosen immediately felt strong dissatisfaction with this.

In his view, Aizen offering to provide Arrancarization technology was already an enormous concession.

'How dare this Nishikawa Makoto make more demands? This was simply going too far!'

Tosen was about to say something, but Aizen raised his hand to stop him.

Makoto didn't beat around the bush and directly stated his second request: "I want Quincies."

As soon as he said this, even Aizen was stunned.

He never expected the other party to bring this up.

'Quincies... a race almost completely exterminated by the Soul Society... why would the King of Hueco Mundo be interested in them?'

Seeing Aizen's reaction, Makoto calmly added, "You should have quite a few, shouldn't you?"

This was true.

In the original work, when the protagonist's group first broke into the Soul Society, during the fight between Ishida Uryu and Kurotsuchi Mayuri, Mayuri had explicitly stated that he had already dissected countless Quincy corpses and was thoroughly familiar with the physiology of that race.

That meant the Soul Society had always preserved a large number of Quincy remains, and possibly even living specimens.

Aizen raised an eyebrow slightly.

Makoto was right. There were indeed some.

A thousand years ago, Yamamoto led the original Gotei 13 in a large-scale extermination campaign against the Quincies.

The reason was that the way Quincies dealt with Hollows was to completely eliminate them, rather than purify them like Shinigami did.

Every time a Quincy killed a Hollow, that Hollow's soul vanished from the world forever. Over time, this would reduce the total number of souls, leading to a catastrophic imbalance of the three worlds.

In that era, Yamamoto, whose personality was like a super-enhanced version of Akainu, saw only one solution to this problem... kill all the Quincies.

After all, Quincies dying didn't affect the balance of the three worlds.

With the Quincy King, Yhwach's desperate resistance, even the strongest original Gotei 13 couldn't completely exterminate the Quincy Race.

Some survivors eventually hid in the shadows of the Living World.

About two hundred years ago, after discovering that the Quincy population had grown again, Yamamoto, whose personality had mellowed considerably compared to a thousand years ago, launched a second purge against the remaining Quincies in the Living World.

But this time, his methods were indeed much gentler. He didn't exterminate them all, sparing some of the more moderate Quincies... such as Ishida Uryu's lineage.

Aizen asked curiously, "What do you want so many Quincies for?"

Makoto didn't hide it. "Although the Quincies that survive in the Living World are weak, you should know that a thousand years ago, the Quincies led by the Quincy King actually possessed immense power, fully comparable to the original Gotei 13, isn't that right?"

Hearing this, Aizen was briefly taken aback.

He did know this. In the Soul Society's classified records, the accounts of the Quincy Extermination War a thousand years ago were far more detailed than the public versions.

The average strength of the original Gotei 13 far exceeded that of the current Gotei 13, and yet Yhwach's Sternritter could trade blows with that legendary force.

Makoto continued, "If we could fuse that power with Hollow power, we might be able to create an even stronger new life form."

Upon hearing Makoto's idea, a gleam of light flashed in Aizen's eyes.

Kisuke had used Hollow souls to create the Hogyoku, and he, Aizen, had used Shinigami souls to create his own Hogyoku.

So if both types of souls could be used to make the Hogyoku, why couldn't Quincy souls?

If all three types of souls could be used as Hogyoku materials, what kind of thing would be born from combining them?

But Aizen's excitement lasted only a few seconds before rapidly fading. His expression turned serious as he shook his head. "That's impossible."

Although Shinigami and Hollows had been mortal enemies since ancient times, the two powers weren't entirely mutually exclusive in essence.

In fact, one could say Shinigami and Hollow power had a certain convergence. Otherwise, Hollows wouldn't awaken their own Zanpakuto upon reaching full Arrancarization.

A Hollow's Resurrección and a Shinigami's Bankai had striking similarities at the Reishi level, proving that the fundamental sources of their powers could flow and convert between each other.

So both Shinigami Hollowfication and Hollow Shinigamification were viable paths.

But Quincy's Reiryoku was completely different.

The Quincy Power System didn't rely on Reishi in the same way. Instead, they directly manipulated and decomposed environmental Reishi to form attacks. This was a completely different mode of operation at the Reishi level.

Once Quincy power came into contact with Shinigami or Hollow, especially Hollow power, they would produce an extremely violent rejection reaction.

Hollow's Reiryoku was poison to Quincies. Once Hollow power invaded a Quincy's body, the Quincy's body would begin to break down at the cellular level.

This was also why, in the future Thousand-Year Blood War arc, Kisuke could use Hollow power to help the Shinigami whose Bankai had been stolen by the Sternritter to reclaim them.

After hearing this, Makoto just smiled faintly. "Whether it's Shinigami, Hollows, or Quincies, ultimately, don't all these races' powers originate from the Soul King? Since they all come from the same source, why not give it a try?"

This statement caused the only crack in Aizen's composure that day.

Why was Kurosaki Ichigo so strong?

Wasn't it because he was the most valuable mixed-blood in the entire Bleach World?

He had fused the powers of Shinigami, Hollow, Quincy, and even Fullbring.

Those gold-diggers might have two dads at most. But Ichigo had at least four.

Hearing this, Aizen's interest was piqued as well.

The secrets of the Soul King were among the highest-level taboos in the entire Soul Society.

Even the Captains of the Gotei 13 might not know the truth about the Soul King being dismembered. Yet a Hollow like Makoto knew so much?

On the other hand, what excited Aizen even more was the logic of Makoto's statement itself.

Indeed.

No matter how different the outward manifestations of Quincy Reiryoku, Shinigami Reiatsu, or Hollow Reishi might be, their common source was the same existence.

That meant fusion was possible.

Then Aizen thought of something else. His brow furrowed slightly. "To create the Hogyoku, you would need fragments of the Soul King's corpse. Those aren't easy to obtain."

Hearing the words 'Soul King's corpse fragments', Gin's expression behind them changed slightly.

This was precisely why he had gone undercover beside Aizen.

As for where Kisuke had obtained Soul King's fragments, that was another mystery.

Ever since the Soul King was dismembered by the ancestors of the Five Great Noble Families, his remains had scattered across the three worlds. A large portion had been claimed by Yhwach to modify his Sternritter members.

Some, like Rangiku's, had fused with other people's souls in ways that couldn't be traced, lost in the vast sea of humanity.

Maybe Kisuke had simply been lucky enough to find a Hollow that had fused with a Soul King's fragment, purified it, and refined it into his Hogyoku.

Makoto thought back, "The Tsunayashiro Clan, one of the Four Great Noble Families, should still have some."

Hearing the words 'Tsunayashiro Clan', Tosen's expression changed dramatically.

If not for the still-bleeding wounds on his body reminding him of his current weakness, he might have lost control.

His betrayal of the Soul Society and allegiance to Aizen... the direct cause of that was the Tsunayashiro Clan.

The wife of that Tsunayashiro Clan's member, who had been murdered by him, was Tosen's dear friend.

The reason Makoto knew about this family, which had barely appeared in the original manga, was because he had happened to learn that Tosen's deceased friend's husband was a member of the Tsunayashiro Clan, so he had specifically looked up the relevant background information, thus learning that the Tsunayashiro Clan secretly preserved fragments of the Soul King's remains.

As for what kind of research the Tsunayashiro Clan conducted with those fragments, not even Central 46 might know the full extent.

Finally, Makoto and Aizen exchanged a glance and said in unison:

"We'll start with the Tsunayashiro Clan."