Chapter 654 Harribel: My Worldview Is Collapsing

Another few years passed.

With the addition of Ulquiorra and Yammy, the strength of Las Noches grew even further.

News spread quickly through Hueco Mundo... that even Ulquiorra Cifer, who had never allied with anyone, had joined Makoto's forces. The shock this caused in Hueco Mundo was no less than Baraggan's death.

After some time, Coyote Starrk, who had also heard of Makoto's group's reputation, came to visit with his soul-companion Lilynette.

After spending less than a day in Las Noches, he voluntarily requested to join.

Makoto didn't ask why. With his omniscient perspective, he could basically guess.

And so, the future Primera Espada also became a member of Las Noches.

During this time, Psykos also conducted meticulous research on the bodies of Starrk and Ulquiorra, who had successfully achieved self-Arrancarization.

Unfortunately, even with these two precious samples, she still hadn't figured out a way to allow other Hollows to achieve stable Arrancarization.

It seemed that Arrancarization truly required some kind of catalyst.

But Psykos wasn't too discouraged. If anything, she was somewhat excited.

After all, for a researcher, often the process of chasing a goal was more fascinating than achieving it.

During this time, Makoto also kept busy.

He sent his subordinates to the Living World to gather intelligence.

Unfortunately, they didn't bring back good news... the Japan of the Living World was currently in the Meiji era.

That meant that, at least a hundred years remained before the modern era when Ichigo was born.

Makoto was immediately a bit taken aback.

That meant that if he followed the storyline, he'd have to spend a full hundred years in the Bleach World world before the main plot even began.

Although he knew he didn't have to wait for Ichigo to be born,

Ichigo wasn't the key... Yhwach was.

But that guy just kept sleeping and wouldn't come out. How was he supposed to complete the system mission?

The only comfort was that, before the game world was cleared, no matter how long he spent inside it, only an instant would pass in the real world.

He didn't have to worry that when he returned, his girlfriends in the real world would have turned into old ladies.

Besides, most of them had the Pure Gold, so he didn't need to worry about aging.

With that thought, Makoto felt a bit better.

He walked out to the balcony and looked at the endless white desert outside.

Although the living environment had improved a lot after establishing Las Noches, honestly, this godforsaken place called Hueco Mundo was indeed quite boring.

Makoto left the balcony and returned to the lounge in Las Noches, a room dedicated to his subordinates' rest and entertainment.

Most of the facilities had been pre-stored in his player inventory.

Things like playing cards, billiard tables, dart boards, and so on.

Before he even entered, he saw Nel sitting dejectedly on the sofa, her goat hooves tucked under her body, her mask's eyes lowered.

Harribel beside her was gently stroking her antelope mask.

Makoto didn't know how the relationship between Nel and Harribel, the two flowers of Hueco Mundo, was in the original work.

After all, they'd had almost no interaction in the original.

But at least under the influence of his butterfly effect, the two of them got along very well.

Although their personalities seemed completely different at first glance, their ways of doing things were actually remarkably similar.

Both disliked evolving by devouring their own kind, preserving a kind of almost extravagant kindness in this dog-eat-dog world of Hueco Mundo.

So after officially meeting, their bond grew quickly.

"What's wrong?"

Makoto walked over and sat down beside Nel, naturally pulling her closer.

Harribel explained on her behalf: "She lost to that three-eyed guy and is sulking."

Hearing Harribel's explanation, Makoto looked down and saw the game console still clutched in Nel's hand. He immediately understood that she had been broken by Erlang Shen, the Heavenly Court's number one man, in [Black Myth: Wukong].

"It's just a game. Don't let such a small thing get to you."

Makoto rubbed the bone helmet on Nel's head, thinking to himself that when he got back to reality, he'd have Yu's parents add a cheat function to the console. When in doubt, just cheat.

Anyway, whether in his previous life or this one, Makoto was never one to torture himself in games.

Souls-like games? Suffering? No way. He played games to have fun. No one was going to make him suffer in a game.

Then, Makoto taught her a specific strategy against Erlang Shen... using transformation to become a stone spirit, which could immunize against many of Erlang Shen's combos and grabs, then finding openings for maximum damage, and finally finishing him off with low health.

After hearing this, Nel's eyes lit up. She picked up the game console again and went at it. Before long, a clear-screen prompt popped up, and she let out a long-awaited cheer.

Seeing Nel's mood restored, Makoto watched her cheeks flush with excitement. He couldn't help himself, so he pulled her by the waist and kissed her directly.

Nel let out a muffled 'mmph', then naturally raised her arms to wrap around his neck.

Harribel, watching the two of them kiss as if no one else was there, was completely dumbfounded.

'Wow, am I invisible or something?'

Actually, Hollows below the Vasto Lorde level generally didn't have a complete concept of gender.

But as Hollows continued to evolve, their appearances gradually approached humans, and their mentalities also gradually approached that of normal humans.

And at Harribel's level, her mindset was already no different from an ordinary person's, so she naturally had a concept of gender relations.

But Harribel was still quite conservative about such things.

At the very least, she had never seen it, much less watched a live show from just two meters away on a sofa.

Seeing Makoto and Nel's completely unabashed actions, Harribel felt like her worldview was being rocked.

"I-I'm leaving first..."

Harribel, finally recovering somewhat, sprang up from the sofa and turned to leave.

But the moment she took a step, a hand reached from behind and precisely gripped her wrist.

Harribel stiffly turned her head back and saw Makoto in his chainsaw Hollow form slowly opening his fanged mouth, identical to Venom's.

Harribel was so startled she froze in place, her heart nearly jumping out of her chest.

The only thing that gave her a sliver of relief was that her mask covered the lower half of her face, completely opposite to Nel's mask, which covered the upper half and left her mouth exposed.

Makoto probably couldn't do to her what he did to Nel.

She just had to keep her lips sealed. He couldn't pry her mask open, right?

At that thought, Harribel calmed down a little.

But the next second, Harribel realized she was horribly wrong.

Because she saw, to her horror, that Makoto's target wasn't her lips at all.

It was the two mountains, covered in white bone armor, that were in no way inferior to Nel's.

Harribel felt a tremble run through her entire body.

Makoto's hands kept bringing sensations that made her scalp tingle.

"Don't... you, don't... s-stop..."

Then she saw Makoto unzip his pants.

Nel jumped down from the sofa, naturally kneeling before Makoto. The pink lips revealed beneath her helmet parted slightly, and she lowered her head.

Gulp—

Harribel's eyes went wide.

…

Meanwhile, on another side of Hueco Mundo.

A Garganta slowly opened in the desert sky, revealing its chaotic, empty darkness within, like a giant beast opening its eye.

Such occurrences were common in Hueco Mundo.

Garganta was the main means by which Hollows traveled between the three worlds. Many Menos Grandes that couldn't devour their own kind would use Garganta to go to the Living World to hunt, devouring wandering souls or attacking spiritually aware humans.

Some bold ones would even go to the Rukongai of the Soul Society, where Shinigami rarely patrolled, for a snack, though most never returned.

But this time, what walked out of the Garganta were three figures wearing Shihakusho.

Shinigami.

Any other Hollow seeing this would be absolutely stunned.

Although Shinigami actively coming to Hueco Mundo on extermination expeditions wasn't rare,

The problem was that these three hadn't used the Senkaimon, the Shinigami's main means of travel between worlds. They had used a Garganta, which only Hollows could use.

The Reiatsu of Shinigami and Hollows were fundamentally different. Opening a Garganta required Hollow Reiatsu, which Shinigami theoretically couldn't do.

That was quite astonishing.

The three who emerged were Aizen, Ichimaru Gin, and Tosen Kaname.

Aizen was still wearing the 5th Division's Lieutenant's attire, with a Lieutenant armband on his shoulder.

Tosen and Ichimaru wore ordinary division member's uniforms.

Ichimaru Gin, in particular, was still as small as an elementary school student.