In a high-fashion jungle of an island, where modern architecture rose like sculpted vines from stone and glass, Isla Quimera stood isolated in the Sea of Japan, a few kilometers east of Okushiri Island.
It was a place that did not belong to ordinary maps.
The Arrancar Race inhabited it.
And inside a villa styled like an expensive Italian seaside resort, tension simmered around a brown circular table that had suffered far more abuse than any furniture deserved.
Three women were arguing.
Another sat quietly, listening.
"I told you, that thing should never exist. It was just a false alarm!" Apacci shouted, slamming both palms against the table.
The table endured. Barely.
"So we all imagined it?" Mila Rose shot back, her sharp eyes locking onto Apacci. "We all felt the same 'false alarm'?"
"You two are hopeless," Sung-Sun muttered from her chair, tone flat and unimpressed. She didn't even bother to look at them properly.
"What did you say?" Apacci snapped.
"I'm talking to you," Mila Rose added, leaning forward aggressively.
For three days.
They had been at this for three straight days.
The subject of their relentless debate was the pulsating link they had felt during the examination — that strange resonance when they encountered that man.
Apacci refused to acknowledge it. A man like them? Impossible. She would never accept that.
Mila Rose, however, was certain. She had seen it. She had felt it. The spiritual pressure leaking from him had not been a mistake.
And Sung-Sun? She did not particularly care — at least, that was what she projected. But even she was tired of the endless argument.
A man being an Arrancar.
That was not a trivial claim. That was heresy against their history.
Across from them sat their elder sister. Silent. Composed. The high collar of her white hollow crop top covered the lower half of her face. Her eyes were closed as if asleep, but her mind was far from it.
She was thinking.
BANG.
Mila Rose slammed her hands onto the table.
The table prayed for mercy.
"Are you really insane? You felt it too! That spiritual energy leaking out of him — it was the same as our sister's!"
Apacci stood abruptly and leaned forward until her forehead pressed against Mila Rose's.
"What are you saying? That trash is the same as our sister?" she hissed. "You're scared, aren't you?"
Mila Rose did not retreat. She pushed harder, forehead grinding against Apacci's.
"What did you just call me, you stupid deer?"
"Want to fight, pussy cat?" Apacci grinned, pressing back.
"Wild children," Sung-Sun sighed, covering her mouth with the sleeve of her long white jacket that concealed even her hands.
Then Apacci pulled back and turned toward the silent figure at the table.
"What do you think, Onee-sama?"
Mila Rose immediately went quiet. Both of them did. Their attention snapped toward their elder sister the moment Sung-Sun spoke to her.
Slowly, the woman opened her eyes.
"I will see it with my own eyes," she said calmly. "And if he is the real thing… then perhaps he is from that place."
Silence swallowed the room.
Their eyes widened.
In Arrancar history, there were scriptures — incomplete, fragmented records. They spoke of origins beyond this world. Of a motherland. Of a dimension where their race once ruled, where their spiritual power was amplified, where their dominion was absolute.
The record ended abruptly. No explanation. No conclusion.
But everyone knew its name.
Hueco Mundo.
If a male Arrancar existed… if he truly resonated with them…
Then the only plausible explanation was that he had come from there.
They swallowed.
Their elder sister was not someone who spoke recklessly. She analyzed every possibility before voicing it. For her to even suggest Hueco Mundo meant the situation was far more serious than a simple emotional argument.
While Mila Rose and Apacci had been arguing over whether the sensation was real, their sister had already been calculating how such a thing could be possible.
The two finally sat back down.
Silence replaced fury.
Then—
Bzzzz. Bzzzz. Bzzzz. Bzzzz.
All four phones on the table vibrated at once.
Apacci grabbed hers first.
UA.
She had passed.
Sung-Sun leaned closer to her own phone without picking it up. A small flicker passed through her eyes.
She had passed as well.
Mila Rose picked up hers lazily.
Also passed.
Their elder sister did not even need to check. She knew by their reactions.
Yet her thoughts were elsewhere.
If that man was real… if what they felt was not a mistake…
Then her deduction might not be wrong.
But she would not raise her hopes.
She would confirm it herself.
With her own eyes.
!!ヽ(ﾟдﾟヽ)(ﾉﾟдﾟ)ﾉ!!
AM N. NOT.