“Oh, so there you were.”
When the Manako Osho high priest, also known as Ichibe Hyosube, called out to him, Oh-Etsu Nimaiya, who had been sitting on a cliff of Hoohden while looking at the empty space, shrugged and stood up.
“Oh my, my, what could possibly be the matter, Osho? It’s pretty rare for you to take a stroll all the way over here.”
“Well, I thought it was rarer still not to feel your presence in Hoohden or at that bar filled with all your sword maidens.”
When the Osho stood next to Oh-Etsu, he looked at the empty space that the man had been gazing into earlier in the same way and stroked his deep black beard as he said, “Hm…so Ikomikidomoe is in the Kyogoku?”
“You don’t have to ask, do you? You are the Osho, after all. You see everything in this world—you see, all see, see you again, am I right?”
“Mhmm. I have no idea at all what you’re saying, but it’s exactly as you say.”
After that absolutely meaningless exchange, the Osho spoke about what he sensed with his own eyes.
“Karma is a strange thing. A beast that once called itself a Menos among the Menos that did not break its mask fights Vasto Lorde Arrancars that progressed on a different route of evolution from itself.”
“You sure we don’t need to help? That Tsunayashiro bad boy and the Fullbringer princess seem like they’re having free rein.”
“Don’t mind them. Our role is to strive to make sure the world’s bottom continues on as it ever has. For even if the ones who rule the various gardens change, it is not as though the foundation of all creation will change.”
“As always, you’re quite businesslike when it comes to these things.”
“No, no. While I do not intervene in the matters of the world below, I do like the current Court Guards and the world of the living. If we aid anyone, it would be the Kyoraku family’s tender lad. Though we have a connection with the Tsunayashiro ancestors who are part of the Four Great Noble Clans, we have no reason to favor their many descendants we have never met.”
The Osho crossed his arms at that point and nodded firmly as he surveyed the lower world from high above in Hoohden.
“Whether they have free will or not is one matter, but as long as we have someone who stands atop the heavens to act as a linchpin and continues to center the world as it is now, all is well. All quiet in the world, it might be said.”
Then, turning slightly, he fixed his sights on the Reiokyu that floated at the center of the five Squad Zero Riden and the thing that was enshrined at its center. The Osho grinned and murmured, “Don’t you think so, Yhwach?”
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In the far ancient days…
Before the Seireitei had formed into the shape it is today, and before the Soul Reapers had wielded the weapons that it may be said had given them their roots, a single Menos Grande plagued Hueco Mundo.
It was the dawn of the Hollows as the world formed into the shape it is today, and all evolution was in chaos.
That Hollow was a powerful being above all the rest and evolved into an Adjuchas. The Adjuchas remained an Adjuchas, not wanting to take humanoid form. The old, wicked spirit continued to remain in its monstrous form out of its own tenacious volition.
Barragan Ruizenban and many other powerful beings that had existed even longer than him had evolved to attain forms as Vasto Lordes and Arrancars. When Barragan and the others had their power struggles in Hueco Mundo, the gigantic, sentient beast growing in the sea of reishi sand did not take the side of any group.
A torrent of sinister power, he continued to devour all according to his desires, eventually leaping out from Hueco Mundo to stretch his hands to the konpaku-abundant world of the living and the Soul Society that was crowded with Soul Reapers clad in thick spiritual pressure, continuing to destroy and consume everything like a tempest.
He could not evolve, but the sinister metastasis continued his infinite growth.
Though a Gillian carrying a similar factor later appeared and obtained an ability called Glotoneria, finally becoming known as the Nueva Espada, that is a separate matter.
This Hollow was different—no matter how many he ate, he did not take on their abilities and never acquired further powers than those he was equipped with from the start. In exchange, the spiritual pressure he devoured would accumulate into an inexhaustible supply within his gigantic body. The number of Hollows that Adjuchas devoured finally approached the number of grains of sand on a beach, and eventually, he started to become known even within Hueco Mundo as the “willful calamity.”
The gigantic beast that would continue to grow infinitely and Barragan, who had the power of destruction that went by the name of “senescence,” had a quandary in that they would end up in a draw due to their affinity. So an implicit understanding was formed between the two that they would not meddle in the business of the other.
In that time, he devoured the multitude of spirits that entered his vision and made them into his own flesh and his own blood.
However, that way of things could not go on forever.
He tried to scale the skies in an attempt to consume the Reio, but as a result of the battle with Soul Reapers such as Shigekuni Yamamoto, who was still a youthful hero at the time, he was defeated at the hands of the Manako Osho and Oh-Etsu Nimaiya.
“已己巳己巴” was his name.
“Since we have the opportunity, how about we give him an elaborate name?”
“You are but a nameless lump of Hollow that only devours those similar to you—已己巳己.”
“It is fitting that without reaching any place, you con-tinue to cannibalistically eat yourself indiscriminately.”
“That is, until something appears that can tame all those fragments.”
Through the Manako Osho’s zanpaku-to Ichimonji’s ability Shinuchi Shirafude Ichimonji, the empty monster’s name was painted over as 已己巳己巴, Ikomikidomoe.
Because of his singularity and his expansive spiritual pressure, he could not be entirely destroyed. After his name and existence had been remade, through Oh-Etsu Nimaiya’s hand, he was kneaded into a zanpaku-to and was simply sealed away.
Oh-Etsu had initially planned to hold back the thing by turning him into a full Asauchi, but the Soul Reaper was still in the process of doing that research and was not capable of entirely erasing individuality in those days, so the monstrosity ended up becoming a demonic sword with the ability to devour his own wielder’s konpaku.
Since his origins were as a Hollow that had condensed countless konpaku together, he was also not easily purified, and if they destroyed him as a Quincy would, the scales of the world might have tipped.
As a result, they had ended up sealing him away at the bottom of Hoohden’s seafloor until a Soul Reaper with the tenacity and spiritual ability to properly use him appeared.
A thousand years had flowed by…
The monstrous sword’s seal had been undone, and he had been passed into the hands of a certain child.
A young child, who had been born not long ago.
Into the hands of someone who was created to become the Soul King, the being that the sword had attempted to devour of his own volition in the past.
≡