"What a pity about Hashirama..."
As expected, the first person Madara thought of—aside from his dear sister—was Senju Hashirama. A bond forged through war, rivalry, and reluctant friendship had left an indelible mark. Even now, so many lifetimes later, it still lingered.
Su Xiuyu was equal parts amused and exasperated. While he did miss that kind-hearted fool occasionally, he couldn't help but wonder how Madara could prioritize Hashirama in a moment like this.
"Want me to ask Orochimaru to resurrect Hashirama and Tobirama using Impure World Reincarnation?" Su Xiuyu offered, half-joking.
"No need," Madara waved off immediately. "The reincarnated Hashirama isn't the real one. And I have no interest in seeing that annoying Tobirama again."
"…Oh, right," Madara blinked. "Who is Orochimaru?"
It made sense. When the three had left the shinobi world together, Orochimaru had still been a child. To Madara, the name meant nothing.
"He's a disciple of Tobirama's disciple. You wouldn't have heard of him," Su Xiuyu explained.
"So we're dealing with a grand-student now?" Madara snorted. "Tobirama must be ancient by now. Is he even still alive?"
"Barely. He was nearly killed by Orochimaru recently. The Uchiha intervened and stabilized the situation."
Madara paused. "Hold on. Isn't Orochimaru his student? Why would he try to kill his own master?"
"Who knows?" Su Xiuyu shrugged. "Tobirama didn't exactly choose the most stable successor. I've long stopped bothering with their internal drama."
With the topic exhausted and the reunion celebrations well underway, the night gave way to laughter and toasts.
But in the quiet hours of the night, Su Xiuyu stirred.
He had been sleeping peacefully, Mito and Chisato resting on either side of him. Yet suddenly, a familiar sensation brushed against his consciousness—a feeling he hadn't experienced since the system first opened the Marvel world.
It was faint, but unmistakable.
The system.
Over the years, its presence had grown dormant. His power had increased so vastly that he barely acknowledged it anymore. Still, he appreciated its simplicity. A system without a voice or intelligence—one that didn't interfere or try to manipulate—was far easier to trust.
"A new world… has opened?" Su Xiuyu whispered.
Careful not to wake Mito or Chisato, he rose quietly and vanished from the room with a flicker of chakra.
The next moment, he appeared in a vast, barren desert under a starlit sky. Wind howled over endless dunes, and the world felt lifeless—yet charged.
It was a different world. He could feel it in the air.
"Definitely not Earth," he murmured.
He attempted to draw in the energy around him, instinctively reaching for natural energy—but what flowed in this place was different. Similar in density, but completely foreign. No matter how he adjusted his breathing or tried to merge with it, it rejected him.
No absorption. No resonance.
With a sigh, he created a wooden clone and left it behind to explore. There was no need to end his night's rest for this.
As the real Su Xiuyu returned to the Marvel world, the clone remained in the desert, darting across the dunes.
The vast emptiness offered no signs of civilization. Su Xiuyu used teleportation techniques to accelerate his journey, but the desert's scale defied logic. Even after hours of travel, he found no cities, no ruins—nothing but wind-swept sand that seemed untouched by time or nature.
Then, finally—life.
Or something close to it.
Up ahead, several grotesque skeletal monsters were surrounding a humanoid figure. At first, Su Xiuyu assumed the monsters were scavengers, but their movements were calculated. These weren't beasts—they were predators.
He prepared to intervene, but before he could move, the monsters paused.
"Living energy?" one of them rasped.
"Impossible. A real living being in Hueco Mundo? We've hit the jackpot today—hehehehe…"
They immediately turned their attention away from their wounded prey and charged at Su Xiuyu, howling in excitement.
"Run!" the injured figure cried out. Now that the dust had settled, Su Xiuyu could make out her appearance—a blonde woman with tanned skin, strange proportions, and golden eyebrows and lashes. She clutched a dagger in one trembling hand.
Though weakened, she radiated an aura that felt… familiar.
"Shinra Tensei."
With a simple motion of his right hand, Su Xiuyu released a wave of repulsive force. It struck the skeletal monsters like a tsunami of gravity. In an instant, they shattered—bones scattered across the sand like dry leaves in a storm.
It was over in seconds.
The blonde woman stared in disbelief. "...Yachuchas, taken out in one strike..."
She tried to speak, but her strength failed her. As she collapsed, Su Xiuyu blurred forward and caught her before she hit the ground.
"So warm…" she murmured faintly before slipping into unconsciousness.
Su Xiuyu held her carefully, only now realizing why her presence had felt so familiar.
It was Tier Harribel—the stoic, powerful Espada from Bleach. The infamous queen of the Hueco Mundo, known not only for her immense strength, but also for her... overwhelming figure.
His thoughts momentarily drifted as he held her. Damn... those are the latest-generation LED headlights.
Even for someone like him—who had long since transcended earthly distractions—her presence was... noticeable.
Shaking off the distraction, he steadied her body and gently laid her down on a patch of sand.
She was undeniably Harribel. But judging by her current state, she hadn't yet become one of Aizen's Espada. She looked younger, more vulnerable. It was clear that whatever hierarchy existed in this version of Hueco Mundo, she hadn't risen to the top—yet.
"It seems I'll need to ask her directly once she wakes up," Su Xiuyu murmured.
His eyes turned upward, scanning the sky of this strange world.
So this was Hueco Mundo. No wonder the air felt so wrong. The desert wasn't formed by natural erosion or time—it was a realm made entirely of spirit particles.
Everything in this world, from the dunes to the trees, was formed from reishi—energy closer to soul matter than physical atoms. That explained why Su Xiuyu couldn't absorb it like natural energy.
Yet, strangely enough, it could still burn.
He tested it by igniting a branch. The flame burned normally.
Interesting. Soul matter with physical properties... the laws here are fundamentally different.
But Su Xiuyu didn't dwell on it. Right now, his clone's purpose was simple—wait for Harribel to recover, then question her about the state of Hueco Mundo.
--------------
Under the starry sky of Hueco Mundo, the desert lay cold and eerily silent. Yet, the small bonfire crackled with comforting warmth, casting flickering shadows over the pale dunes. It was this heat that gradually stirred Harribel from unconsciousness.
The moment her eyes opened, Harribel sprang into a defensive stance—though her body trembled with fatigue.
"Caution is wise," Su Xiu Yu's calm voice sounded behind her, "but it's meaningless against absolute power."
In a flash, he appeared at her back, hand extended to touch her neck. But before contact was made, Harribel vanished—and reappeared behind him instead.
Su Xiu Yu raised a brow, genuinely impressed. He hadn't even caught her movement.
It wasn't speed in the traditional sense. No, it was something different. Hollow-specific—Sonído, the Hollow's version of flash movement. A form of near-instantaneous space displacement.
Compared to his own high-speed movement techniques, Sonído was closer in function to space-jumping jutsu. Even the famed Shisui Uchiha's body flicker would fall short when matched against Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique—because one relied on speed, the other on principles of teleportation. The difference was fundamental.
Still, Su Xiu Yu wasn't offended by his failed flex.
Harribel didn't attack. Instead, she gripped his arm, golden eyes sharp.
"Human... who are you? Why are you here? This is Hueco Mundo—how did someone like you get here?"
Her grip was firm, but Su Xiu Yu could feel she wasn't using full strength. Likely due to the weakened state she'd been in when he found her.
He chuckled lightly. "That's a lot of questions all at once. Should I answer alphabetically?"
Harribel frowned, but she didn't press the attack. Despite the absurdity of it all, something about this man's demeanor made her hesitate.
"Don't waste my time."
"I'm telling the truth," Su Xiu Yu shrugged. "I just... wandered in. Got lost. This is Hueco Mundo? Huh. I was wondering where I was."
Harribel didn't believe a word of it.
No one "wanders" into Hueco Mundo. Not unless they were bait. The average human would've been devoured in minutes. Yet here this man was—casually sitting at a bonfire after obliterating several Adjuchas-class Hollows in one move.
More baffling: he hadn't used any spiritual power. Not even a trace.
"How'd you get injured?" Su Xiu Yu asked casually. "Someone as strong as you... shouldn't be on the losing end of a bunch of Adjuchas, right?"
"You're reckless," she growled, "but boldness is not the same as strength. I am... a Vasto Lorde. Do you know what that means?"
He grinned. "Nope. Why don't you explain it to me? I mean, I did save your life, didn't I?"
Harribel stared at him. She couldn't argue with that. He had stepped in when she was on the verge of death. And during the time she was unconscious, he hadn't harmed her in any way. That earned him a shred of trust.
A very small shred.
She sighed and released his arm. Then, sitting down across from him near the fire, she began to speak.
"Vasto Lorde is the highest evolutionary form of a Hollow. Unlike the lesser Menos classes, our size is smaller—closer to humans. As you can see," she gestured at herself, "we don't look like monsters. But our strength... is leagues beyond Adjuchas."
Su Xiu Yu leaned forward, listening with genuine interest.
She continued, her tone neutral but her expression softening ever so slightly. "I had just finished a prolonged battle. Fought off dozens of Adjuchas and... I evolved. But the process drained me. I couldn't fight anymore. That's when they came back, sensing my weakness."
"So they jumped you right after your upgrade?" Su Xiu Yu asked, lips twitching in amusement. "Wow. No honor among Hollows, huh?"
Harribel didn't rise to the bait. She simply nodded. "This world is ruled by strength. No one cares how you win. Only that you survive."
Su Xiu Yu watched her carefully. She was still wary, but far from hostile now.
"You're pretty honest for someone who was just trying to snap my neck," he said, chuckling.
"You didn't kill me while I was unconscious," she said simply. "That means something in Hueco Mundo."
It was a strange sentiment, but Su Xiu Yu understood it. Despite being a Hollow, Harribel clearly retained a strong sense of honor. Her loyalty to her subordinates in canon had shown that already. She was one of the few Espada with actual compassion—though she rarely showed it.
She was emotionally intelligent, despite her stoic demeanor.
"Now," Harribel said, gaze steady, "how exactly did a human like you arrive in Hueco Mundo? There are no natural portals."
"I'm telling the truth," Su Xiu Yu replied, shrugging. "I came here by accident. It's not like I planned to vacation in a monster-filled dimension."
Harribel narrowed her eyes.
"And you don't know how to leave?"
"Not yet," he replied. "Working on it."
There was a moment of silence. Harribel studied him as if trying to see through his soul. But she found no deceit—only casual arrogance and unsettling confidence.
"Well," she said, "as long as you don't attack me... we're not enemies."
Su Xiu Yu smiled. "Glad we're on the same page. Though I do have one last question."
Harribel tilted her head.
"Why are you so honest? Most strong fighters—especially Hollows—would never admit they were ambushed or weak."
Harribel looked into the fire, her expression unreadable. "Strength isn't about pretending you're invincible. It's about surviving, learning, and growing stronger."
Su Xiu Yu was silent for a moment, then nodded. "You're right."
From her demeanor and words, it was clear Harribel had just become a Vasto Lorde—meaning the events of Bleach had yet to fully unfold. That made this a crucial moment.
Hueco Mundo was different from the physical or spiritual worlds. It was made entirely of reishi—spiritual particles that formed everything, from sand to trees. The air was thick with it.
Yet Su Xiu Yu couldn't manipulate it. He wasn't a Hollow, Quincy, or Shinigami—he had no spiritual physiology. Still, this world fascinated him.
Because here, the soul was king.
And if Su Xiu Yu wanted to ascend to the next level, to shatter the limits even his vast powers couldn't break... it would have to be through understanding the soul.
Becoming a Shinigami or a Hollow—or perhaps something beyond either.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Want to know what happens next? You don't have to wait....40+ chapters ahead are already live on Patreon 👉 [email protected]/FanficLord03
And don't forget: every +500 power stones = 4 bonus chapters for everyone!
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
https://discord.gg/MntqcdpRZ9