Rei walked alone through the mountains and forests. For an ordinary person, doing this was practically asking to die, and there was a very good chance they would become a Hollow's meal. But Hollows were exactly what Rei was waiting for.
After Rei deliberately lowered his Reiatsu, five Ragged Hollows soon appeared. He severed their arms and legs. None of the five had High-Speed Regeneration, so they could only lie on the ground and wail.
His black index finger pierced the mask of one insect Hollow, and a small stream of pure Reiryoku flowed into him. Rei was just about to burst out laughing when the Reiryoku stopped flowing. The Ragged Hollow dissolved into Reishi and dispersed into the world.
"Yanis, is that all? So soon?"
It looked as though Rei was talking to himself, but he was actually asking Yanis, who was inside his body. They could hear each other's voices, and after reading Yanis's memories, Rei no longer called him black-skin or green-skin, but addressed him by name.
"My lord, that's how Lesser Hollows are. Most of them just have relatively strong bodies. Only after devouring enough souls can they gain a little more Reiryoku. Besides, the power we gain through this kind of devouring is permanent..."
Yanis had learned Rei's name as well, but he would not address Rei by name and could only use an honorific.
Rei had looked through Yanis's memories, but only those concerning Yanis's own abilities and some matters relating to Menos Grande, in order to judge whether Yanis was truly loyal.
As for certain things about Lesser Hollows and other Hollows, Rei still had to ask Yanis sometimes. After all, Yanis's memories were so vast that Rei could not go through them all.
"My lord, you have to eat a Hollow whole to gain all the power it had in life. We're all spiritual bodies, so when my Stinger Devour has drained about half of one, it might no longer be able to maintain its body and collapse."
"Eat one whole? Are you kidding? Hollows stink and are disgusting. How would I dare eat one..."
Yanis had suggested that Rei eat a Hollow bite by bite. Naturally, Rei refused without even considering it. The fishy stench was worse than undercooked salted fish.
As long as a Hollow's mask had not been split by a Zanpakuto, its body could generally remain intact for several days after death. Its mask, the core of its power, could even last for hundreds of years without dispersing...
"If you won't eat a whole Hollow, eating an entire mask will also work. Ninety percent of Hollows have the core of their power in their masks, and the mask accounts for at least eighty percent of their power..."
Yanis once again suggested that Rei devour a mask. This was not because he had already given Rei his full support, but because he had not lost a Hollow's instinct to devour.
As mid-level Menos Grande, Adjuchas constantly faced the fear of regression. If their masks were bitten by a Hollow of the same level or higher, they would forever lose the chance to evolve.
Crack!
"Ah, it's so hard..."
"Uh..."
Rei followed Yanis's advice, forcibly pried off a Ragged Hollow's mask, and took a bite. But it was harder than he had imagined.
Rei's teeth chipped, and Yanis, inside his body, did not dare speak again. For a moment, things were a little awkward; Rei could concentrate Reiatsu in his fists and weapons, but not in his teeth...
"Even a Ragged Hollow's mask can be this hard. As I am now, I probably couldn't break a Gillian's mask without using Shikai, much less eat it... Think of another way."
"Uh, then I'll give it some more thought..."
Yanis did not dare promise Rei anything. After Stinger Devour drew in another being's Reiryoku, it still had to go through a series of processes before it could be converted into Rei's Reiryoku.
And if Rei ate with his mouth, Yanis would help him digest and process it... Those were the only two methods, so coming up with another efficient one was a little difficult.
Yanis seemed to think of something and suddenly said, "My lord, I've got it. I can just turn your left hand into a mouth made specifically for devouring. That way, I'll be the one experiencing the stench and hardness, not you. The only thing is, the mouth will be small, so it might be a little slow."
The only part of Rei's body that Yanis could modify was the area extending from his left hand to his left temple, because that was all the territory he had previously encroached upon.
"Turn it into a mouth? That's a good idea, but will the index finger still have its devouring ability?"
"Of course. The mouth will essentially be my mouth, the kind every normal Hollow has. The fingertip will still have the ability I evolved..."
Rei had thought he would lose the devouring ability in his index finger, but Yanis's words filled him with delight. This would make it the perfect devouring ability!
"Why does this look a little like... Deidara!?"
After his left hand had been modified, Rei could not help exclaiming. He had not watched Bleach in his previous life, but he had watched all of Naruto.
"My lord, who's Deidara?"
The mouth opened and closed, and Yanis's voice came out of it.
"Uh... Deidara is an artist, but he isn't from the same world as us."
After casually brushing aside Yanis's question, Rei examined the mouth's structure carefully...
That said, this mouth looked much better than Deidara's. At least when Yanis closed it, not even lips appeared on Rei's palm.
When it opened, white teeth were visible, with two rows on both the top and bottom. The inner rows were slightly smaller, making it look as though there were another mouth inside. Its tongue was only the size of a thumb and could extend at most about two centimeters beyond his palm.
With the work complete, the perfect devouring ability had taken shape: the fingertip could pierce the Reiryoku-producing points in Pluses or Soul Reapers, the Hakusui and Saketsu, and drain their Reiryoku as soon as it pierced them. The mouth, meanwhile, could slowly devour Hollow masks, remove the impurities, and integrate the rest into his body, giving him greater power.
The Reiryoku he gained from devouring the masks of several Ragged Hollows was meager, but the thought that it was a permanent increase in power still filled Rei with excitement...
Training on his own could also make him stronger, of course, but it would not produce such a noticeable feeling. The change would only come slowly and imperceptibly. For a Soul Reaper to go from possessing Reiryoku to reaching the peak of their potential took at least many long decades...
With the left hand's "devouring" ability working properly, Rei next needed to test the index finger's "draining" ability. Although there was nothing wrong with the ability itself, Rei wanted to know whether souls would die if he drained all the Reiryoku directly from their Hakusui or Saketsu, where their Reiryoku was produced...
East 22nd District!
Rei came to another small town, where a few thousand Pluses probably lived. Some worked constantly so they could enjoy life and satisfy their desires and appetites; others did not care and simply lay flat.
There were also people here who had awakened Reiryoku, and Rei quickly set his sights on three targets. The three even bullied the souls of children who would never grow up, snatching a bag of candy from a child in the street and slapping the child so hard they cried.
"You don't even get hungry. Eating that much is just a waste."
"That's right. We of the Idiot Trio only need to get a little stronger, and we'll be able to become Soul Reapers..."
The three idiots were boasting. Rei had not heard clearly what came before "trio"; the child's crying had caught his attention, so he could only give them the name "Idiot Trio."
"Idiot Trio, is it? Follow me!"
Rei walked up to them, spoke slowly, then turned and walked away. His mouth was covered by a scarf, and he was dressed head to toe in close-fitting, modern black clothes.
He was afraid someone might investigate him after he stole their Reiryoku, so he had deliberately changed his appearance. As for his Reiatsu, which he could not change... could you really expect ordinary souls to remember someone else's Reiatsu?
"What? Looking for trouble? We're not the Idiot Trio, we're..."
"Boss, he isn't even listening. He's already walking away."
"Bastard, follow him and kill him!"
The three morons followed Rei all the way to the edge of town, with a crowd of onlookers trailing behind them. Several children even cheered Rei on, urging him to kill the Idiot Trio.
Two of the Idiot Trio carried machetes, and one carried a cleaver. They charged at Rei, howling, and then fell down howling. Rei dragged all three away by himself, disappearing from the onlookers' sight...
"They actually didn't die? Yanis, have you finished draining them?"
"Yes. As you ordered, I only drained all the Reiryoku from their Saketsu and Hakusui. I didn't drain it from anywhere else..."
"Good!"
It was much as Rei had imagined. Yanis only needed to drain the Hakusui and Saketsu, the two places where a soul produced Reiryoku, to obtain a Plus's Reiryoku.
The three idiots had not died. Rei had spared their lives and tied them to trees so they could not move. When they woke up, they wailed incessantly. Annoyed, Rei cut through all three trees with a single swing.
The three, silenced by the unspoken threat, immediately shut up and did not speak again, no matter what.
A full day passed before Rei asked, "Do you still feel hungry?"
"Hungry? Yeah, it's been a whole day. How come I don't feel hungry?"
"Me neither..."
"Me neither, but I need to pee!"
The three idiots started raising all sorts of issues again, wanting Rei to untie them. Rei did untie their hands and let them eat, even though they were not hungry...
Since he had already spent all his own money, Rei took theirs, went into the street for a meal, and wandered around for a few hours. When he came back and checked again, the three could no longer regenerate their Reiryoku...
Normally, exhausting their Reiryoku would make a soul feel hungry, and a day of good food and sleep would restore it. But these three could no longer recover their Reiryoku.
Yanis could not explain the phenomenon. He had never used such a gentle method to drain a soul's Reiryoku; he had always swallowed them whole.
"The Reiryoku I drained permanently increased my own power, but was their talent sacrificed in exchange? Sure enough, there was no such easy gain..."
Rei's original plan had been to keep a group of people who had awakened Reiryoku and use his draining ability to take only their Reiryoku without killing them. After draining them once, he would feed them over time, wait for their Reiryoku to recover, and then drain them again.
That method would have let him hide away and slowly grow stronger, without needing to go around plundering and attract the attention of Soul Reapers... Rei knew his own current strength.
It was a beautiful idea, but the reality was that once someone's Reiryoku was taken, they could not regenerate it. At least, people whose Reiryoku was as weak as theirs could not...
"Sacrifice others to better myself? No, I can do it another way entirely. I can turn sacrifice into deliverance..."
Rei did not feel particularly guilty. Draining souls' Reiryoku would not—this was a world where the weak were prey to the strong.
Hollows' instinct was to devour and grow stronger; that was their nature. And although the souls in Soul Society did not devour, they too pursued power and climbed the pyramid, with the Seireitei at the top...