The room behind the fifth door wasn't large, and there were no further doors at the end of it. It seemed this was the very end of Szayelaporro's laboratory.
However, there was a door on both the left and the right. Kōe opened them one by one. On the left was an exceptionally tidy bedroom—very Szayelaporro. On the right was a room piled high with jars and vats, resembling a dissection room—also very Szayelaporro.
The central materials room still occupied the vast majority of the space. There weren't many experimental subjects inside—less than ten in total. But the most crucial point was that they were all alive!
Thank goodness. Kōe now genuinely praised the practice of live-subject research. Though this method had initially made him feel nauseous, what was more important than being alive? As long as they were alive, there was a glimmer of hope—a truth that applied just as much to him as it did to these 'pitiful' Adjuchas.
015, 103, 137... The numbering of these living subjects varied wildly. Kōe had no idea what Szayelaporro's numbering system was based on. Chronological order? Ability classification? Both were possible. As far as he knew, Kurotsuchi Mayuri numbered his subjects based on their level of importance.
Names were still a major issue, but it was no longer an unsolvable one. Since the Hollows in front of him were alive, couldn't he just ask them directly?
Kōe swept his gaze across the room. None of the Adjuchas, each housed in their own independent VIP incubation pod, had any visible external injuries. Whether the liquid inside the pods was sustaining their lives remained unknown for now.
However, from the perspective of Reiryoku, Kōe could clearly see that there was a strand of Reiryoku inside their bodies—carrying the same signature as the Reiryoku on the laboratory's outer walls—that was suppressing their own Reiryoku.
So, even if they left the incubation pods, there was a high probability that these Adjuchas wouldn't drop dead instantly. Right? It should be like that, right?
To be honest, Kōe couldn't guarantee it. The incubation pods before him were made of the same material as the laboratory's outer walls. Their Reiryoku-blocking properties meant that, without destroying the pods, he couldn't use his own Reiryoku to wake the Adjuchas up first.
What came next was a bit of a gamble. Kōe had to destroy at least one pod to ask about Roca's whereabouts. But if these Adjuchas died the moment they left the pods, and by some stroke of terrible luck, the one who died happened to be Roca, he would truly be utterly devastated.
But time was of the essence. After all, he wasn't strolling through his own backyard where he could leisurely brainstorm a safer method. Sometimes in life, you had to gamble with a life—as long as it wasn't your own.
He cleaved open the incubation pod of subject 015 with a single strike of his sword. At this moment, Kōe subconsciously assumed the numbers were arranged chronologically; the larger the number, the higher the chance of finding Roca. Of course, Szayelaporro might have numbered them in reverse, so this was really just a bizarre form of self-comfort.
Subject 015, an Adjuchas resembling a giant butterfly, tumbled to the floor along with an unknown pale purple liquid. The liquid bubbled on the ground as if it possessed a life of its own.
It was a highly concentrated Reiryoku liquid. Its exact function was unknown, but it clearly didn't serve to sustain life, considering the life signs of the Adjuchas at his feet hadn't weakened in the slightest.
However, the creature was still unconscious. Was it due to the Reiryoku Szayelaporro had left inside its body? Kōe frowned. He immediately reached out and dissolved that strand of Reiryoku, simultaneously using his own Reiryoku to gently stimulate the creature's nerves.
Subject 015 indeed began to wake up, though it still appeared extremely weak. It muttered brokenly, "Please, let me go... Lord Szayelaporro..." and kept repeating the phrase.
It was a tragic sight that would bring tears to anyone's eyes. Kōe shook his head. *What a sin.*
"Do you know where Roca Paramia is? Or perhaps, are you Roca?"
Kōe's voice caught 015's attention. It saw an incredibly small silhouette, but this figure was standing, and more importantly, it didn't possess Szayelaporro's despair-inducing voice.
"Delon, Delon Bradshaw... Save me. I... I can give you anything..."
It wasn't the one he was looking for, but there was good news: the possibility of them dropping dead upon leaving the pod could be temporarily ruled out. And that meant Kōe could speed things up a bit.
Kōe leveled his Zanpakutō. A thin white line, like a ripple skimming across the surface of water, spread through the room from the tip of his blade, striking the remaining incubation pods.
Bang! Accompanied by the sound of shattering glass, all the Adjuchas were temporarily freed from their fate as experimental subjects. Though they looked like fish washed up on a beach, they now actually had a chance at survival.
Repeating the process, he used his Reiryoku to eliminate the internal restrictions within them while stimulating their nerves to temporarily restore their consciousness. However, this state wouldn't last long. These Adjuchas were currently weakened to the extreme; just like the one named Delon, who had already fallen back into unconsciousness.
"Which one of you is Roca Paramia?!" Kōe shouted, deliberately amplifying his voice with Reiryoku to make it clearer.
One second, two seconds, three seconds... Time ticked by, but not a single Adjuchas responded to him. Had Roca already been turned into a specimen by Szayelaporro?
Just as Kōe was beginning to feel a pang of regret, a slender, insect-like limb slowly raised into the air. It belonged to a spider-shaped Adjuchas. A frail voice, reminiscent of an introverted young girl, rang out. "I... I am Roca..."
Kōe used Shunpo to appear instantly in front of the Adjuchas. All of these Hollows were currently in a state of sluggish cognition, and the one before him was even more obviously so. There was likely no chance of her being an imposter.
"Relax. I'm here to get you out. You're saved."
The weakened Roca felt her body being gently lifted. That low, slightly hoarse voice was speaking the most beautiful words in the world, making her feel incredibly warm.
Warmth. This was a feeling that did not exist in Hueco Mundo. A long, long time ago in Soul Society, someone else had given her this exact feeling, even though she had been following Szayelaporro during an invasion of Soul Society at the time, making her that person's enemy.
"Saved... Roca is saved... Don't let... me come back... I don't want to come back ever again..."
"Hmm?" Kōe looked up at Roca, who was slung over his shoulder, only to find that she had already passed out. He thought he had just heard her say something. *Is my hearing going bad? Approaching my two-hundreds, I suppose I'm really not that young anymore...*
With a few Shunpo, Kōe carried Roca out of the laboratory. He truly lived up to the title of Shinigami; at this moment, there wasn't a single living thing left inside Szayelaporro's lab.
To be honest, he had wanted to save the remaining living Adjuchas, but carrying dozens of them would be no different from carrying a small mountain. He *could* physically carry them, sure, but had anyone ever seen a person running away with a mountain on their back? It would be far too flashy.
"It seems I really am getting old. My heart isn't as hard as it used to be," Kōe muttered to himself, waving his right hand backward. "[Hadō #33・Sōkatsui]!"
Blue flames erupted from Kōe's palm and surged into the laboratory behind him. With all of its defense systems already destroyed by Kōe, the lab could only allow the flames to run rampant through its interior.
"When you reincarnate, I hope you all meet a Shinigami upon your deaths. Although life in Rukongai is hard, it's at least more peaceful than this. Rest in peace."
Having finished his final task, Kōe vanished from the underground laboratory with Roca. Although he had done *something* to Szayelaporro's lab, he had only used a low-level Kidō to burn the specimens inside. This shouldn't count as a breach of contract, and Szayelaporro wouldn't be *too* angry... right?
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