"If it's an iron pot you need, I do have one. If you don't mind, I can provide it. All I ask is a look at that machine in your hand that can generate matter at will."
Just as Sōgo Shihoin was at a loss, a male humanoid Menos Grande with pink hair and a flamboyantly gay manner of speaking walked toward him and Lilynette.
"One of Baraggan's men!"
Lilynette rose from the ground and put up her guard.
"Hahaha... don't get so worked up. I have no intention of fighting you. I merely came on His Majesty Baraggan's orders to give you two a reminder."
The humanoid Menos Grande repeatedly waved his hands at Lilynette, who was preparing to attack. He had no intention of facing Lilynette, who could fire an unlimited number of Ceros, and a Soul Reaper whose Spiritual Pressure was even more terrifying than hers here. He was a scholar, not one of those battle maniacs.
"You have an iron pot? Let me see it!"
Sōgo Shihoin looked at the humanoid Menos Grande before him with interest. He was interested in all Hollows capable of communicating normally and suppressing the desires within their bodies. Hollows and Soul Reapers alike evolved from human souls, or Pluses. They seemed vastly different, but actually shared the same roots, and even their ultimate paths of evolution were exactly the same, without any difference.
"One moment..."
After hearing Sōgo Shihoin's words, the humanoid Hollow immediately removed a bracelet from his wrist, which then transformed into a huge medicinal cauldron.
"Although I don't have an iron cooking pot, if you're boiling something, a medicinal cauldron should work too, right?"
The humanoid Menos Grande asked Sōgo Shihoin.
"It doesn't quite have the right atmosphere, but it'll do!"
Sōgo Shihoin looked at the medicinal cauldron that had appeared in the desert and nodded lightly as he spoke.
Sōgo added water to the cauldron, put in the soup base, then used Sōkatsui on its bottom.
Before long, the red water was steaming and boiling like blood. As soon as it came to a boil, Sōgo added sliced beef and lamb, duck blood, and beef tripe... Sōgo's way of eating was extremely crude, the sort that would bring a true gourmet to tears.
"Sōgo Shihoin's spicy, numbing Sichuan hot pot! Complete!" Sōgo took out three oil dipping dishes and three pairs of chopsticks, handing them in turn to Lilynette and the nameless pink-haired humanoid Menos Grande. "Try it! This is a delicacy you've definitely never had before."
"There's a portion for me too?"
The pink-haired man was momentarily taken aback, then politely picked up his chopsticks and reached for the food in the pot. He was a scholar, both in life and now, and cared little about food. Even when he was alive, nutrition had been his priority. He had never seen another way of eating like this.
The pink-haired man casually picked up some beef, casually dipped it in the sauce, and casually put it in his mouth. After that, there was no stopping him.
"This flavor?! An almost perfect numbing spiciness! How can such seemingly ordinary food contain such perfect principles?!"
The pink-haired man felt the numbing spice ravage his sense of taste. Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, while his eyes filled with the desire to keep eating.
"Unhealthy! Completely unhealthy! But why is it so delicious? How strange! This is far too strange!"
The pink-haired man kept plucking beef and lamb from the hot pot. As the sweat on his forehead increased and his face grew redder, he understood less and less.
"Hmph! No one in this world can resist the allure of hot pot."
Sōgo Shihoin looked at the pink-haired Menos Grande, who was drenched in sweat and eating heartily, and gave a disdainful smile. How could a mere Menos Grande like him understand the essence of Chinese cuisine!
"Is it good, Lilynette?"
Sōgo Shihoin asked Lilynette beside him.
"It's delicious!"
"I've never had anything like it."
Lilynette nodded lightly, her little face flushed as her chopsticks kept picking meat out of the pot.
"Don't rush. There's plenty."
After spreading his homeland's cuisine, Sōgo Shihoin felt a distinctive pleasure and pride.
"Come to think of it, I haven't asked your name yet. What's your name?"
Sōgo Shihoin asked the pink-haired humanoid Menos Grande.
"My name is Szayelaporro. I'm a scholar!"
Szayelaporro answered Sōgo Shihoin honestly.
"Oh~ I see you're humanoid too. Could you also be a Vasto Lorde-class Menos Grande?"
Sōgo Shihoin asked Szayelaporro.
"That's right. I evolved through certain special means. I originally intended to surpass Vasto Lorde and reach an entirely new realm, but I failed... what about you? How did you become so powerful? I've never seen a Soul Reaper as powerful as you in my entire life. No, to be precise, I've never seen a being as powerful as you in my entire life! That vast Spiritual Pressure is like a galaxy. Are you really one of those Soul Reapers with their pathetically frail bodies? Please, tell me. Through what special means did you evolve?"
Szayelaporro was full of curiosity about Sōgo Shihoin.
"I didn't. I was born this way. I've been invincible since birth."
Sōgo Shihoin nodded lightly at Szayelaporro. He had no intention of deceiving him and answered truthfully.
"Born that way? What a shame. I thought I could learn the secret to becoming a perfect life-form from you."
Szayelaporro sighed with some regret. In fact, the moment he first saw Sōgo Shihoin, he had thought that, if the man agreed, he would immediately join him. For no other reason than that his vast Spiritual Pressure and unfathomable vitality were exactly those of the ultimate life-form Szayelaporro sought. Perfect! Powerful! Beautiful!
"No! That's not right. It's precisely because you were born that way that you're perfect!"
As Szayelaporro reconsidered, the desire in his heart grew increasingly uncontrollable.
"May I study you?"
After thinking for a long time, Szayelaporro followed the desire deep in his heart and asked Sōgo Shihoin.
"Study me?"
"Hahahaha..."
Sōgo Shihoin burst out laughing as though he had heard some ridiculous joke.
"If you can manage it, be my guest~"
Sōgo Shihoin nodded indifferently at Szayelaporro.
"..."
After hearing Sōgo Shihoin's words, Szayelaporro's pupils trembled slightly, and his heart began to pound violently. He knew this was the first time this strange emotion had appeared in his heart.
"Love!"
Szayelaporro knew this was "love," a love called "madness"!
"Huh?!"
Unaware of what was going on in Szayelaporro's heart, Sōgo Shihoin tilted his head slightly in confusion.
"There's no mistake. You're the perfect life-form I've always pursued! No... that's not right. You're more perfect than a perfect life-form-the ultimate life-form that exists only as a rough outline in my mind!"
"Thank the gods for guiding me to meet you here."
Szayelaporro suddenly stood up excitedly and cried out.
"Huh..."
"You scholars believe in gods too?"
Sōgo Shihoin looked at the nearly crazed man before him and shook his head slightly.
"I didn't before, but after meeting you, I believe. This must be divine instruction, the guidance of fate!"
Just like the aspect of death he represented, "madness," Szayelaporro's thought processes were completely different from those of normal living beings. He was obsessive and stubborn, his mental state swinging between highs and lows, making him impossible to fathom.
(End of chapter)