Over the course of more than forty days, Starrk stuffed the twenty-odd adjuchas they could find in the Forest of Menos until they were full. They found two Vasto Lorde along the way and stuffed them full too.
As a result, the number of Gillians in the entire Forest of Menos rapidly dwindled to an unimaginable degree. Before Jun and the others started doing this, you could walk a few dozen kilometers through the forest and find a group of Gillians, since they lived in groups. Now, it was hard to find even one wild Gillian there.
Jun really had to leave now. If he stayed any longer, he wouldn't know how to explain it to Soul Society. He knew there was another formidable red-haired man in the Forest of Menos named Ashido, Ashido Kanō. Huh? Only now did Jun realize that this guy was currently the Third Seat of the Third Division.
The original story also said that five hundred years ago, he and his companions went to Hueco Mundo—in other words, on an expedition. They went too deep into the Forest of Menos, and in the end, they were killed one by one, leaving him as the only survivor. He decided to remain in Hueco Mundo to avenge his companions.
In that case, it had to be either this expedition or the next. Jun was conflicted. Would his arrival cause this formidable man who tore adjuchas apart with his bare hands to disappear? Forget it. He wouldn't think about it.
Back to Jun, Starrk, and Lilynette.
The three returned to the Tōzanshō holding Ulquiorra. Starrk asked, "Are you concerned about this Vasto Lorde?"
"Uh, a little. We met two other Vasto Lorde, but the one in here is the most human."
"Human? Ah, he can feel fear."
"Yeah."
Starrk reached out and closed his hand around empty air. "Will he become one of my kind? Speaking of which, what do you Soul Reapers call someone like me?"
"Uh, nothing yet. But I think we should call you Arrancar."
"Arrancar?"
"Yeah. Your mask broke, so Arrancar."
"Our masks broke, huh? Yes, we're Arrancar." Starrk asked again, "Will he become an Arrancar?"
"I don't know." Jun shook his head. "This is an experiment. It depends on their individual condition. If he hasn't become an Arrancar when he comes out, find some more Gillians and stuff them into him. I think he can become an Arrancar sooner or later. Probably."
"Probably? You don't know either?"
"Of course I don't. I'm a Soul Reaper, and Soul Society doesn't even know that an Arrancar like you exists. So it's only natural that I don't know."
"Yeah, I understand."
After watching for a while longer, the two turned to look at Lilynette, who was playing with an Ordinary Hollow nearby and making it wish it were dead. Jun smiled, and so did Starrk.
"You're leaving, right?"
"Yeah. You can't stop me this time. I've already settled it with Lilynette, and you can't stop me either."
"Yeah, I won't stop you."
"Good."
Starrk stared at Jun, making him a little uneasy.
"I'm curious. Why do you have to go back?"
"Uh, someone's waiting for me."
"Your own kind?"
"Uh, yeah, my own kind."
"But you told me our own kind can't be trusted."
Jun scratched his head. "I didn't tell you that your own kind can't be trusted. It's just... Tsk, how about this? Before I go back, I'll talk to you about your own kind. I wouldn't feel at ease just leaving you like this."
"Yeah." Starrk nodded. "All right."
Jun told Starrk a great deal about the history of humans and Soul Society, along with all sorts of other things. That alone took two days, and Starrk and Lilynette listened with great interest.
"Members of the same kind kill one another, and they betray one another. Is that right?"
"But they can also share friendship, romantic love, and family bonds."
"So some of our own kind are good, and some are bad."
"You could look at it that way."
"Then is he good or bad?" Starrk asked, pointing at Ulquiorra, who was still inside the Tōzanshō.
"I don't know either, because whether a person—whether someone of your own kind—is good or bad is for you to decide. If you think he's good to you, then he's good. If he's bad to you, then he's bad."
"Then what about you, Jun? You're not my kind, but I think you're good to me. You're a good, uh, different kind."
"Haha, that's called a different kind."
"Yeah, a good different kind."
Jun smiled, very happily. What state were Starrk and Lilynette in now? They had a general body of knowledge. After becoming Arrancar, they had gained the ability to speak, which might have been something retained in their souls.
But they had also spent far too long as Hollows, so they had lost much of their humanity and had only a very vague understanding of many things. In this state, they could quickly understand what Jun taught them, but if he said nothing, they would remain ignorant and confused. Still, as long as they experienced those things themselves, they would understand them just as quickly.
They had exceptionally powerful abilities to learn and understand.
"Speaking of which, if I hadn't seen Lilynette and there had only been you, Starrk, I really wouldn't have known whether you were a Hollow or a Soul Reaper."
"Oh?"
"You don't have a Hollow's hole or a Hollow's mask. You really are just like a Soul Reaper." Jun went on to ask a question he already knew the answer to. "And speaking of that, you and Lilynette are so different in strength. How did you become Arrancar together?"
Starrk and Lilynette exchanged a glance, then nodded. Starrk said,
"You haven't seen our true form yet. We're one person. I'm Lilynette, and Lilynette is me."
With that, Lilynette disappeared, and Jun saw Starrk in his Resurrección from the original story. Jun's eyes lit up with excitement. Seeing it performed in person really was cool!
"Oh, oh, oh, oh~~~! Amazing!"
"Is it? But I don't like it."
As he spoke, Starrk released his Resurrección, and Lilynette appeared again. Jun knew why Starrk had split off Lilynette: it was because of his loneliness.
Starrk was too strong. Any Hollow that came into contact with him would die, so eventually he no longer wanted to kill. Yet there still wasn't a single Vasto Lorde who could coexist with him. That was the reason for Starrk's loneliness.
In Jun's view, however, Starrk's problem wasn't actually that he was supposedly too strong, but rather his innate skill. Of course, he was indeed very powerful.
After a Hollow evolved into an adjuchas, it would develop an innate skill. It was actually similar to a Soul Reaper's Shikai; looked at that way, everyone would understand. The Rhinoceros Beetle from before had a special ability to sense sound, and the Espada in the original story each had their own traits too. They had possessed those traits since their adjuchas stage.
So what was Starrk's trait? It was that Reiatsu circle. Because it was a Hollow trait, one of his permanent abilities, the Reiatsu circle was a passive skill while he was a Hollow. If Jun hadn't taught Starrk to control it, he would have had to wait for Aizen to teach him. In any case, as a Hollow, he had no way to perceive or control that ability.
Jun had some theories about the source of this ability. He had noticed that many Hollows had animal forms. Starrk was a wolf, and did Shark Sister even need to be mentioned? Nel was a centaur, Ulquiorra was a bat, Old Five was a mantis, Grimmjow was a leopard, Luppi was a spider, and Jun couldn't tell what Old Seven was. Old Eight, that eunuch, was a jellyfish, and Yammy was a caterpillar.
Old Nine was still a Gillian and didn't have this kind of trait, while Baraggan, the second Espada, was the only Hollow whose symbol was a human. He was as rare as could be.
Looking at Starrk's symbol again, one would find that it wasn't a lone wolf, but a pack of wolves. A wolf pack was one of the strongest wild animal groups in the world, and the one with the strongest territorial instincts. The symbolism of that Reiatsu circle was therefore very clear: it was the pack's hunting range.
Thus, everything within Starrk's Reiatsu circle was prey for the pack. That was the real reason the circle killed Hollows. Starrk's essence was a hunting wolf pack, one that killed all food within its territory.
But the more intelligent a Hollow became, the more humanity it would awaken. The humanity Starrk awakened wasn't loneliness, but friendship. A wolf pack needed companions, but Starrk was only a lone wolf. Thus, his long loneliness caused him to become an Arrancar, and Lilynette came into being.
It was also that long loneliness that let him accept a Soul Reaper like Jun at his side. Had it been Grimmjow or Nnoitra instead, Jun would have been dead long ago. Those two wouldn't have given him a chance to live.
It was precisely because of Starrk's loneliness that Jun had him test the Arrancar awakening plan. Jun was taking advantage of Starrk's desire for others of his kind; he could carry out all the tests perfectly.
"With your personality, you'll end up getting hurt. You're always kind to people you meet for the first time. Now you can control your Reiatsu circle, and once you've mastered it completely, you'll really be able to interact with others of your kind."
"Mm~"
"When that happens, your gentleness will let them hurt you." Jun pointed at the Tōzanshō. "This person might not hurt you, but he'll be afraid of you."
"Will he run away?"
"Probably."
"Who wouldn't be afraid of me?"
Jun thought deeply. In the original story, Nel was one person who was truly compatible with Starrk, and Shark Sister was a good match too. That was all. Moreover, Starrk's symbol completely countered Nel's. Poor little Nel.
"Maybe there's someone in the Endless Sea."
"That world full of water?"
"Yeah. In the World of the Living, the ocean is the largest world. The creatures in the ocean are larger than those on land, and stronger too. The strong won't be afraid. Do you want to try going there?"
"Okay."
Jun held out his pinky. Starrk looked at it, then held out his own, and the two hooked them together.
"Promise me that if one of your own kind hurts you, you'll protect yourself. Don't play with bad people, and don't be good to them."
"Yeah, I promise."
"All right, then I'm going back now."
"Yeah."
"Before I go, please help me with something."
"Go ahead."
"Beat me until I'm seriously injured."
"Why?"
Jun's plan was to be beaten until he was seriously injured and then thrown into Soul Society, but Starrk refused outright to hit him. Because of that, Jun spent another day reasoning with Starrk.
"Does this happen when there are too many of your own kind?"
"It's mainly that a lot of people don't accept those who are different, but I'm different. Actually, you're different too, Starrk. We're both different."
"I see. I understand."
"Come on. I believe you can control it. After you injure me, throw me back into Soul Society. You can do it."
"Yeah."
Then Jun knew nothing more.
The Tenth Division's daily patrols continued. Although more than a month had passed, the atmosphere in Soul Society hadn't improved much. Jun's death really was a major event for Soul Society: the fall of a hero.
If Soul Society as a whole felt that way, it was even harder on the Tenth Division. Jun was extremely well-liked, just like Aizen in the original story. He was so well-liked that everyone spoke highly of him.
The patrolling members were therefore miserable too, and they went about their patrols listlessly. But whenever they encountered a Hollow, it was as if they'd been pumped full of energy. They all wanted to avenge Jun.
Yamada Taiyū, the Tenth Division's Seventy-Third Seat, hadn't had much interaction with Jun. He had only attended Jun's classes, and when he asked Jun for advice, Jun taught him.
To Jun, it was nothing, because he treated everyone the same way. But to Yamada Taiyū, that guidance was a kindness, and Jun was half a teacher to him.
Today, he was patrolling with two other division members. As he walked down the road, he suddenly saw a spatial rift.
"A Hollow!!!???" Yamada Taiyū flew into a rage and charged forward. He hadn't even stopped to consider why a Hollow had arrived through a spatial rift instead of a Garganta.
But he had already charged in, so the other member of his patrol and their captain had no choice but to follow. Then they saw a battered person fall out of the hole.
Yamada Taiyū's blade was already about to come down. In an instant, he wrenched it aside so hard that he broke his own left wrist to stop the slash, then lunged forward and caught the battered figure with his injured hand.
"Ah~~~~~!!!!"
"What's wrong, Yamada!!"
"Come quickly! Akiyama!! Your Shunpo is the fastest!! Quick!!"
"I'm coming! What's wrong!?"
"Take Shimizu-san to the Fourth Division!! It's Shimizu-san!! It's our Shimizu, Sixth Seat!! Quick!!!!"