Personal System
Apache.
After thinking back for a while, Cangya recognized the name. She was one of the Tres Bestias, Tier Harribel's Fracción.
Tier Harribel, the golden-haired, brown-skinned Espada—she was one of his favorite female characters, and she led Apache and her two friends.
"This is bizarre."
It should be before Apache met Tier Harribel and became an Arrancar through Aizen's influence.
In this timeline, the cunning Aizen had yet to take control of Las Noches.
"Maybe he already has."
He wasn't entirely sure about Bleach's complicated timeline.
"What's your name? Don't think you can find out mine without telling me yours!" Apache snapped at his silence. "Cat got your tongue?"
Perhaps Cangya's even temper and his ignorance of Hueco Mundo had put her at ease.
She sensed no danger, allowing her true personality to emerge. She was polite on the surface, but she was a hot-tempered Hollow.
"Cangya," he answered, his fingers brushing the skull mask that covered most of his face. "This..."
It prompted him to examine the other changes to his body.
He was still wearing the clothes he'd died in—a white shirt and jeans, both torn in awkward places and exposing his pale skin.
One of the holes exposed the enormous wound in his thigh. Two holes, to be precise.
"Hmm. I think I remember this."
At least at the higher stages of evolution, every Hollow's hole symbolized some aspect—representing what the Hollow had lacked most before death or the cause of its death.
He remembered that from the background lore. A Hollow Hole near the stomach, for example, meant a thirst for power, while a hole where an eye should be meant blindness to certain things.
"What does my hole mean?"
He gently knocked on his thigh, then tried moving his leg. It still worked normally.
"Scared by your hole? We're Hollows. Since we can fly, why tire our legs out walking?" Apache asked.
"Haha, true." He chuckled at her indirect reassurance. "Apache, where are we going?"
"How should I know?" she retorted. "Somewhere I don't have to keep running from those damned embodiments of greed."
As if by instinct, Cangya gently stroked the top of her head, running his fingers through the soft fur there.
It was a habit he'd picked up while riding horses, a way of showing affection to his mount.
"Watch where you touch! I'm not your pet."
Despite her angry tone, she didn't order him to get off her back.
He looked at his leg and smiled, touched by her subtle kindness.
Even in this dangerous world, she had shown compassion to a stranger.
Perhaps she was happy to meet a reasonable companion in Hueco Mundo, someone who wouldn't betray her and treat her as food.
"And they say all Hollows are evil."
If she were in her Arrancar form, he might have considered seducing her.
He had always liked tomboyish girls.
Unfortunately, she wouldn't gain a human form anytime soon.
"What a shame. Oh, right! I almost forgot about that pop-up window. It was called the Character System, right?"
As if responding to his curiosity, a huge gray box suddenly appeared, blocking his view.
{Character System}
He skimmed the status panel, focusing on the three-dimensional model beside it. It showed what he looked like now, as though he were a character in a video game.
His clothes alone were enough to prove the model represented him.
Ignoring his newly grown long silver hair and pale skin, he fixed his gaze on the pair of black feathered wings.
He reached behind himself and grasped the soft bones growing from his shoulder blades.
He gently moved his shoulder blades, feeling the muscles in his wings stretch and awaken.
The wings roused from their deep slumber, looking fragile and hazy, as if they had a life of their own.
"I have wings!"
His eyes widened with anticipation, and he drew a deep breath.
His wings fluttered almost as if enchanted. Then, drawing on an inner strength he didn't even know the source of, he began to beat them up and down with force.
The wind from his beating wings caught Apache's attention. "Can you fly?"
Cangya stopped moving his wings and patted her back. "I don't know."
"..."
He turned his gaze back to the status panel and noticed that his half-mask bore a striking resemblance to a demon's skull.
The huge openings in the mask revealed his striking blue eyes, while a row of fearsome teeth on the mask overlapped his lips.
Even the twisted horns looked like a demon's.
"Am I some kind of demon?"
[Basic information] Name -- Cangya Gender -- male Race -- Hollow (Vasto Lorde) Reiatsu level -- high Menos Grande (Captain-level) Alignment -- neutral evil Affiliation -- none
Racial abilities [Cero: spiritual pressure attack skill Mastery -- not yet learned.] [Sonído: movement skill Mastery -- not yet learned.] [Garganta: limited spatial distortion skill. Mastery -- not yet learned.] Innate abilities [Ginrei Kuchiki's Voice: your voice can influence the state of mind of others. This ability works best when persuading or seducing others.] [Unknown / undiscovered: the manifestation of your Hollow heart] [Shattered Heart: creatures classified as "Hollows" are nourished and strengthened.] [Regeneration: your wounds heal automatically. The time required depends on the severity of the wound.] Acquired abilities [Seduction: the ability to seduce the opposite sex. Mastery -- basic] [Riding: the ability to ride mounts. Mastery -- intermediate] [Arithmetic: the ability to handle arithmetic problems. Mastery -- intermediate] [Equipment] High-quality cotton shirt Denim jeans
"Did I lose some of my memories?"
This definitely wasn't the status panel of a newborn Hollow.
A Vasto Lorde with Reiatsu comparable to a Captain-level fighter—that kind of power put him near the top of Hueco Mundo's hierarchy.
Yet, judging by the end of the manga, he was still nothing more than high-level cannon fodder.
He was no match for final villains like the Quincy Sternritter.
"Neutral evil. That... makes sense."
He had always pursued freedom, regardless of whether it broke the law.
Not to mention his contempt for his grandfather, who had sacrificed his own life for the greater good of society.
Indeed, he had never fit the image of a law-abiding person.
Next were his racial abilities—a series of skills all Vasto Lorde possessed, none of which he had learned yet.
There was nothing special about those. What was truly special was his list of innate abilities.
People had always praised his voice, and it had made things easier for him when interacting with women.
He couldn't have imagined that it was one of his innate abilities.
"Shattered Heart."
Though the name sounded frightening, it seemed to be a team-oriented ability with no obvious benefit to him personally.
If he could find Hollow companions he could trust, the ability might come in handy.
Forget it—he would either seduce female Hollows into trusting him or subdue them through the natural laws of Hollows.
"The unknown Hollow heart."
He put that unknown aspect out of his mind and continued looking through the rest of the status panel.
His skills were nothing remarkable.
In fact, in a world where one Quincy could turn his imagination into reality and another could foresee and manipulate the future at will, these skills couldn't be considered powerful at all.
"There has to be more than this. There have to be other functions."