Chapter 156: Aizen: Such a Wonderful Day
Aizen was very happy.
This trip to Hueco Mundo had yielded him so much.
Before him stood a massive cultivation tank.
Kōga Kuchiki floated inside, completely naked, with numerous tubes inserted into his body.
Some of these tubes were connected to various monitoring devices, used to collect data.
Others were linked to various life-support equipment.
Among them, three tubes contained ultra-high concentration anesthetics.
If Kōga showed any signs of waking, these anesthetics would be injected.
In truth, even without the anesthetics, it wouldn't matter.
The liquid in the cultivation tank contained powdered Sekkiseki. A Shinigami inside would be utterly powerless.
Unless, like Satoru, one could rely on pure physical strength to shatter the tank, escape was impossible.
Aizen held a clipboard, constantly recording various data.
Occasionally, when he grew tired from writing, he would look up, stretch his neck, and glance at another cultivation tank.
Inside floated Yasushi Takada.
His treatment was similar to Kōga's, also covered in tubes.
Plus, there was the bonus item, Tsunayashiro Takatori.
One trip to Hueco Mundo, and he gained three new specimens.
How fortunate life was!
Such a wonderful day must be filled with good things, right?
Aizen smiled.
The next second, a voice rang out—
"Aizenaemon! Please help me!!"
Aizen's smile froze.
Under his resistant gaze, a certain harbinger of misfortune pushed open the lab door and barged in.
...He shouldn't have registered his fingerprint for the lab's lock.
Watching the triple-proof door, which had been violently pushed open and slammed back, behind Satoru, Aizen couldn't help but regret his decision.
And after hearing Satoru's request, he was even more speechless.
Damn, in all his years, this was the first time he'd heard of someone throwing away their Zanpakutō during a fight and only remembering it days later!
He quickly turned to fetch the tool for opening a Garganta.
"I always thought I had a grasp of your absurdity and wouldn't be shocked by you anymore."
"Yet in the blink of an eye, you deliver such a surprise."
"Satoru, in a way, you're truly a genius."
"Haha, you flatter me."
Satoru clasped his fists in salute, strictly adhering to the virtue of humility.
Aizen felt his blood pressure rising.
After preparing the Garganta key, he led Satoru to a newly expanded, spacious room.
"This is the Dangai Prepping Chamber. The walls are embedded with high-strength Reiatsu shielding devices."
"Performing inter-realm travel here effectively blocks external detection."
"If we don't do this, and the Soul Society someday notices frequent abnormal Reishi fluctuations here, they might take notice."
Satoru nodded. "Brilliant."
When it came to matters requiring meticulousness and careful thought, he never bothered worrying.
Aizen had grown up; he could handle such things himself and would rarely make any oversights.
As the senior, he should let Aizen grow on his own and not plan everything for him. What if he wasn't around someday?
Satoru looked at Aizen with a fond, approving gaze.
Aizen frowned slightly.
Though he didn't know what that expression meant, he really felt like cutting Satoru down.
Soon, the two returned to Hueco Mundo.
Aizen poked his head out from the spatial rift and surveyed the surroundings.
After confirming it was safe, he silently leaped out and landed on the ground.
"Can you sense the sword's location?"
He turned his head and asked Satoru, who had followed him out.
Satoru shook his head: "No need for such trouble."
Under Aizen's gaze, he raised his arm horizontally, fingers spread wide.
Then, maintaining this pose, he held it for over two minutes.
Aizen: "?"
He wanted to remind Satoru that Hueco Mundo was vast. Although he had tried to limit the Black Coffin's opening to a certain range, even so, the Zanpakutō's perception might still be out of range.
But just as he was about to speak, he suddenly remembered something.
Come to think of it... hadn't Satoru been using his Zanpakutō's ability to stabilize his shattered bones all this time?
It was one thing in Hueco Mundo, but after returning to the Soul Society, with the sword and its wielder separated by an entire world, how could his ability remain unaffected?
How was that possible?
The barriers between the Human World, Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo were forged by the Soul King, exceptionally strong.
How could a Zanpakutō's power penetrate such barriers?
For a moment, Aizen's mind raced, contemplating various possibilities.
Gradually, a hypothesis formed in his mind.
Aizen took a deep breath and looked at Satoru.
If this conjecture was correct, then this guy Satoru was probably about to surprise him once again...
As he pondered, Satoru suddenly laughed:
"It's coming."
Aizen looked up.
He saw a flash of light gleam on the horizon.
A few seconds later, that light came flying rapidly toward them.
From afar, the shape of a sword was already visible!
Aizen: "..."
Judging by the sword's flight speed, it must have been dozens of kilometers away.
Absurd. Utterly absurd.
"Ah! My good brother! My other half! I was badly injured before and couldn't bring you home, you must have been so lone... Holy shit!!"
Satoru spread his arms, emotionally welcoming his sword.
But before he could finish, he saw his Zanpakutō showed no signs of slowing down, heading straight for his face.
Satoru quickly performed a roll, dodging with invincibility frames.
BOOM!!!!
The Zanpakutō crashed into the desert beside Satoru like a bomb.
The massive impact sent Satoru flying with a shriek.
Having sensed something amiss when the sword approached, Aizen had already distanced himself earlier.
Satoru wiped the sand off his face, rushed to his Zanpakutō, and pulled it out from the sand.
"Attempting to murder your master? You traitor! Did you hook up with some floozy in Hueco Mundo while I was gone and recognize a new owner?!"
Aizen: "..."
Others might not do such things, but Satoru definitely would.
Held in Satoru's hand, the Zanpakutō vibrated a few times, seemingly expressing dissatisfaction.
This only made Satoru angrier: "You've even developed this function now?"
While he was talking to his Zanpakutō, Aizen suddenly froze.
"Satoru, come here."
He opened a Black Coffin and flipped inside.
Satoru followed with his sword: "What's happening?"
Aizen said: "My Reiatsu detection device just..."
Before he could finish, he saw Satoru suddenly sense something and turn to look in another direction.
Just now, the Reiatsu sensing device Aizen had placed in Hueco Mundo sent a signal, informing him that a group of Menos Grande were rapidly approaching this direction.
And the direction Satoru was looking happened to be exactly where the device reported the Menos Grande were coming from!
After more than half a second, he too could sense the Reiatsu from the opposite side through the air...