NOVEL WEB 28 – Explaining Things
"Remember this kid?" he asks while transforming into the original 16 year old version of himself before he died. He even included the exact clothing and gear he was wearing that night.
"H-how do you know about him?" her face twists into a pained expression. She had always felt guilty that someone died and she had been too late to save them. If only she had left right away. Even worse it was a boy even younger than she was, just an innocent regular human.
She can clearly remember the torn up body of the kid that had bled out in that park. It had been sickening. She was at least glad when she believed he hadn't managed to turn into a Hollow like she almost had due to White's poison.
"I don't just know about him. That was me." he replies bluntly.
"That's impossible! His soul was already gone when we got back there." she says, unable to accept that the person they failed to protect would have turned into a hollow. The words coming out of the familiar face was extremely off-putting.
"Did you really think they would leave my soul behind after it became involved in their experiments?" he asked her while transforming back to his Hollow appearance.
"Their experiments?" she asked with hesitation. Isshin had told her there was more to it than just some kind of unusual Hollow.
"Yeah, that Hollow was an experiment by Soul Society's captain Sōsuke Aizen. After I was attacked by him and his associates took me away and made me into what I am now." he says. He suddenly unleashes [Blut Vene] and an all too familiar pattern spreads across his carapace shocking Masaki further.
'No way... that's Blut Vene. But only Quincy can use that!' she isn't sure what to think. It should be absolutely impossible for a Hollow to use that skill, even more so than other spiritual creatures since Quincy spirit power is poison to Hollow and Hollow spirit power is poison to Quincy.
"You're lying! You used that transformation or illusion power to do this." she says trying to cover up the uncertainty and guilt in her heart.
Hisashi sighs.'This is such a pain.' he turns removes [Blut Vene] then proceed to slash one of his arms deeply. A lot of blood splashes on the ground. It doesn't take long for his [High-Speed Regeneration] to kick in and completely heal the wound though. Then he uses [Blut Vene] again making sure to pump a lot of his spirit power into it and slashes the other arm, this time it barely even manages to scratch him.
"Happy now?" he asks. "Or do you need to test it? If you want you can check the blood to make sure it's real." he backs up to give her the space in case if she wants to.
Masaki shakes her head, but still hesitantly walks up to the puddle of blood dipping her fingers in and rubs them together. 'Hmm... if this is all faked it's a very convincing fake.' she thinks. However she is starting to believe that Hisashi isn't just some regular Hollow now.
"Alright, say I were to believe you. Then what happened to you?" she asks.
"Well the attack did turn me into a Hollow and I was experimented on for over 10 years after I died there. As you've seen I can become virtually undetectable. They weren't aware how that power had developed and it gave me an opening to escape during one of the experiments on me." he says. Lying convincingly is a lot easier when you don't have a face.
"While I was imprisoned there though I did manage to hear some things regarding their plans. One of which involved the attack on you. "
"Wait, you're the one that attacked me." she counters.
"Not quite. Look." he says then transforms into Grand Fisher including the lure. Then he started moving the lure away, but it disappeared as soon as it got to the edge of his [Illusory Aura] just beyond his arm reach.
"That's the range of my ability. I wouldn't have been able to lure your son with this like the original Grand Fisher that drew him in and was poised to attack. I just knew he was going to attack you because it was planned. I killed him before he could complete the attack then took his place to fake your death so you would survive without Aizen knowing." he explains.
"Your attack was part of their larger plan involving both the very top of Soul Society and Hueco Mundo. They have already taken over the leadership of Hueco Mundo." he reveals.
"Don't we need to warn them?" she says realising the danger this represents.
"No. Your family, Urahara and is associates and Soul Society are under close watch around the clock and any move will force their hands killing anyone involved to prevent the information from spreading. The only way is to strike at the right time." he slowly tries to lead her to seeing things the way he wants her to.
It's difficult because he wants to use her saviour complex and guilty feelings to move things in the direction he wants, but there is a risk that he trigger her saviour complex too much and she ends up doing something that messes it all up for him he is going to have to take drastic measures.
"Roughly six years from now Aizen plans to betray Soul Society. That is a moment of weakness for him when he gives up the support of the Shinigami. Until he makes his move they just see him as one of the nicest most beloved captains in all of history. Before then he can mobilise both the forces of Hueco Mundo and Soul Society to take care of things either in the open or from the dark." he tells her.
"As much as I would like to let you return to your family now that the attack is over I can't have you showing up and alerting them that you survived and revealing my existence in turn endangering my and my families survival. Another thing is I went out of my way to save you, but if you end up endangering my family I won't hesitate to take drastic measure to protect them." he added threateningly.
Masaki's blood ran cold with the sheer amount of killing intent he was giving off near the end of his sentence. She was sure he wouldn't hesitate to kill her on the spot if he decided she was a threat. Part of her could understand, she felt the same way when it came to her own family.
"F-f-family?" she stuttered out still affected by his wave of killing intent.
"Well...I had a family before I died." he said matter of factly as if it was the plainest thing in the world.
Although she was starting to get rather convinced Hollow and family were two concepts that had no overlap in her mind before this point and she had thought he just acting out of self interest. Technically every Hollow had a family before they died, but they were more likely to eat them rather than protect them. Hell, many of them did end up eating their families.
'There has to be enough carrot along with the stick.' Hisashi thought to himself.
"In return I will help protect your family for these 6 years. After that you should be safe to return without risking retaliation from Aizen and I'm even willing to reveal some information regarding what happened to the Quincy if that interests you." he adds.
Masaki was struggling, she wanted to go back to her family. However, if it was a risk to them and others if she did that wasn't something she wanted to risk. Also unlike Hisashi even if she did return she had no way of protecting them as she was now. She also knew something had happened since she lost all her powers.
