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.....
To say he was angry would be an understatement. In a way, as Szayelaporro rushed back to his laboratory, he didn't even possess the capacity to feel anger—or rather, he hadn't had the time to process it yet.
He had already extinguished the fire in the lab. Aside from altering the pristine, white-themed decor of the main facility, the flames hadn't caused much structural damage, but the blow to his research was absolutely devastating.
Strolling through the ash-filled laboratory, everything before his eyes felt incredibly familiar, yet unusually foreign.
There was Specimen 006, an Adjuchas that resembled a peacock carp. Szayelaporro still remembered how mesmerizing its iridescent purple body had been.
During his brief moments of rest between experiments, Szayelaporro would occasionally sip on a refreshing nutrient fluid while admiring the perfect curves of its body suspended in mid-air. What wonderful memories.
But now, it had fallen to the ground, broken into several pieces, its entire body charred black like an ugly loach. That magnificent purple was forever a thing of the past.
And then there was Specimen 333 with its spiral horn. Its horn was elegant and hard, an incredibly rare and excellent material. Szayelaporro still didn't know what had caused such a beautiful thing to manifest.
But now, all that remained of it was that single horn, lying quietly in a pile of black ash...
There was also Specimen 147, with its slender, boneless arms that perfectly balanced softness and strength, and Specimen 238, which could incubate controllable little dolls...
Szayelaporro remembered what each of them used to look like and the wonderful times they had spent together. These were all his precious treasures, but now they existed only in his memories.
"Good heavens, who could have done this to you? How could they be so cruel? No!"
As Szayelaporro surveyed the devastation along the way, his broken voice echoed through the empty laboratory. It sounded so desolate, like a devastated mother who had unexpectedly lost her children.
A devastated mother. That was indeed the most accurate term to describe Szayelaporro right now. It felt as though his heart was surrounded by countless tiny needles, piercing into it millimeter by millimeter, stinging his nerves and tormenting his soul.
Heartache, regret, and nostalgia intertwined until Szayelaporro reached the final room, where his emotions finally erupted completely.
"Shinigami! No matter where you hide, I will not let you go! You lowly scum, I'm going to turn your skin into a floor mat! No, I'm going to pull out your bones one by one! Damn it!"
"Ah! Damn Baraggan, damn this operation, damn that Shinigami!"
His uncontrollable fury, accompanied by his Reiatsu, erupted like a volcano. The laboratory, which had remained intact even under the devastation of [Hadō #33・Sōkatsui], was actually trembling right now.
This was a rare loss of composure for Szayelaporro. The unknown Shinigami who had done all this had not only destroyed over a century of his hard work but had also mockingly left behind an empty shell. He didn't even need to close his eyes to see a mouth smiling wildly before him. That silent laughter was more insulting than slapping him a thousand times.
Not to mention that no one could slap him, no one dared to slap him, and no one had the right to slap him! He would find him! Whether in Hueco Mundo, the World of the Living, or even Soul Society! At any cost!
...
"You really are willing to find him at any cost, aren't you."
Strolling through the underground caverns of the Maggot's Nest, Urahara Kisuke looked at the wanted posters of Ao plastered on the walls, feeling quite helpless.
Having her fiancé run away from the wedding—no, having her wedding crashed? That wasn't quite right either. In any case, Yoruichi, whose marriage had fallen through, was starting to look a bit obsessed.
"You mean those? They've been up for a long time." Yoruichi, leading the way, glanced around and said casually, "I put those up two years ago. I figured there were some old geezers in here, and maybe one of them might just happen to know that old bastard."
"Well, it looks like it was a failure." Urahara curled his lips. Setting aside how absurd it was to show wanted posters to people who had been locked up for who knows how long, just the fact that Ao's face was covered by a mask was confusing enough. God knows how many masks like that existed in Soul Society.
"Of course it was a failure. It just proves that the reason an old bastard is an old bastard is that, aside from acting like an absolute bastard, he's also incredibly old. Living a long time really is a skill, especially when people are out to get you!"
As Yoruichi spoke, she unconsciously began to grind her teeth again. Every time she talked about Ao, her jaw would ache for a while. It had been two years, and the other party still hadn't let Kōe come back.
Training, training, training. At this rate, he probably wouldn't stop until he had trained Kōe into an old man. If it really came to that, her husband would probably be completely disillusioned with the mortal world, maybe even ending up bald like Old Man Yama. She couldn't even bear to imagine that scene; it was too cruel!
*Old bastard, just because you never took a wife doesn't mean you can pass that tradition down to your disciple! The Shihouin clan is still counting on Kōe to carry on the family line. You can't be this unreasonable!*
"Alright, this is the entirety of the Maggot's Nest. Aside from the person at the very end, you can do whatever you want with the rest as long as you don't kill them. If you understand, I'm leaving!" Yoruichi said in a bad mood, making a move to leave, but Urahara immediately stopped her. "What's wrong? I don't think I provoked you, did I?"
"I thought you asked me to transfer you to Squad 2 to help me find that old bastard, but it turns out you just came here to slack off." Yoruichi replied faintly.
Urahara didn't know whether to laugh or cry at Yoruichi's resentful glare. "It's not like I haven't helped you look. You said it yourself, the most important thing about that old bastard is that he's lived a long time. Don't be too anxious. In a thousand or eight hundred years at most, Kōe will definitely be back."
Hearing this, Yoruichi instinctively grabbed her forehead. Wasn't this exactly what she was most afraid of? Two bald heads, two Old Man Yamas... her head hurt so much.
But where exactly had that old bastard taken Kōe to train? She had practically turned Rukongai upside down over the past two years, but it was almost impossible to fully search the most likely location, the Plains of Slaughter. So, all she could do was her best and leave the rest to fate.
She might as well go back to training Suì-Fēng. That child's Zanpakutō was simply too perfect. If she worked hard, maybe she could develop it further. If that old bastard really took a thousand or eight hundred years to send Kōe back, she would just have Suì-Fēng assassinate him. Living too long wasn't a blessing anyway!
Watching Yoruichi's figure disappear into the Maggot's Nest, Urahara pulled a pendant from his pocket. He really wondered how Kōe was doing in Hueco Mundo right now, but it seemed he hadn't encountered any danger yet.
...
"Foolish, greedy people can never keep their mouths shut, drooling with what they call arrogance."
Szayelaporro smiled and slowly closed his hand. His long skirts trailed behind him as he let out bursts of gloomy laughter, walking out of his laboratory step by step.
"Just wait. Szayelaporro is bringing a disaster called punishment. Hehehe!"
Several Hollow phantoms swayed back and forth in the laboratory along with the laughter, like wind chimes swaying in the breeze. They watched their master leave step by step, waiting for this laboratory to be filled up little by little once again, and the first addition would be a Shinigami who had come to Hueco Mundo.
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