Before Hinamori Momo, her elder brother appeared like a war god descending from the heavens.
With nothing more than a watermelon knife, he had subdued a Hollow.
In her tear-blurred vision, her brother knelt atop the Hollow's head — one foot pressing down on its skull, the other bracing against the white mask — forcing the blade into the seam between bone and mask, prying it apart with brutal precision.
The Hollow writhed violently beneath him, its claws tearing trenches into the sand, but it could not rise. The blade had found the structural weak point where mask and skull fused.
Blood — thick and dark — burst from the fracture and spilled across the riverbank, staining the water crimson.
"HISSSSS—!!"
The fish-headed Hollow shrieked.
This was not the purifying cut of a Zanpakutō.
When a Shinigami kills a Hollow with a Zanpakutō, the soul is purified and sent onward. But when destroyed by raw force, a Hollow's body collapses and disintegrates into reishi.
What Sombravida was doing was far more primitive.
Far more painful.
He was tearing off its mask.
Without the mask, a Hollow's core structure destabilizes. Its spiritual body begins collapsing from the inside.
Sombravida's movements were decisive.
Though his spiritual pressure was still modest compared to what he once possessed, he condensed every ounce of it into the watermelon knife. That concentration gave the blade temporary lethality — enough to split flesh and crack bone.
Decades of life-and-death combat in Hueco Mundo had trained his instincts beyond that of ordinary souls.
In a single exchange, he identified the Hollow's structural flaw.
And struck.
The mask split.
The Hollow's spiritual pressure collapsed instantly.
Low-level Hollows cannot maintain cohesion without their masks — within seconds, their reishi structure destabilizes entirely.
Ten seconds later, the writhing stopped.
The creature spasmed once…
Then dissolved into drifting black reishi.
"Momo, are you alright?" Sombravida exhaled slowly, kicking the corpse reflexively to confirm cessation of movement before turning toward her.
"B–Big Brother…"
Momo's eyes were unfocused.
"It's over," Sombravida said gently, kneeling beside her. "You're safe."
"Big Brother… waaah—!"
The shock finally broke her composure.
She clung to him and sobbed uncontrollably.
Behind them, Tōshirō lay unconscious but breathing steadily.
Sombravida briefly checked him. No critical injuries. Just spiritual exhaustion and blunt-force shock.
Good.
Tōshirō's spiritual power was already abnormal for a child — but not yet weaponized. Hyōrinmaru had not awakened.
"Momo… it's over."
She trembled violently.
Did Big Brother kill it?
"Yes," Sombravida answered softly.
"I'm blind… but I can sense spiritual pressure. I located its shape and struck its weak point."
Relief flickered in her eyes—
And then she fainted.
Sombravida caught her before she hit the ground.
He laid both children side by side.
Then he turned.
And looked at what remained of the Hollow's mask.
The Experiment
Sombravida broke off a fragment.
He crushed it with the knife until it was no larger than a fingernail.
Then—
He swallowed it.
The fragment disintegrated instantly into reishi and flooded into his spiritual system.
Pain.
Explosive, violent pain.
The Hollow's reishi clashed against his internal circulation like a foreign toxin.
His own spiritual particles surged defensively and crushed it.
Sombravida fell to one knee, sweating heavily.
"So… the systems reject each other."
He inhaled slowly.
In canon, Shinigami who undergo forced Hollowfication experience violent spiritual rejection. Hirako Shinji and the others nearly lost themselves before Urahara Kisuke stabilized them.
The power systems are incompatible unless properly balanced.
Hollows gain strength by devouring souls.
Shinigami cannot simply "eat" Hollow power without catastrophic backlash.
Unless—
The ratio is correct.
Ichigo Kurosaki could balance it because he was born hybrid.
Visored exist because Urahara forcibly stabilized the equilibrium.
Sombravida narrowed his eyes.
The fragment had hurt.
But it had not corrupted him.
That meant his tolerance threshold was not zero.
"If my reishi density increases… I might be able to absorb Hollow reishi in controlled quantities."
He was not becoming a Visored.
Not yet.
But theoretically—
He could create his own equilibrium.
Before he could test further, two spiritual signatures approached at high speed.
Shunpo-level movement.
Patrol Shinigami.
Sombravida quickly tore off a larger mask fragment and concealed it within his clothing.
Let them handle the rest.
He returned to the children's side.
The Patrol
Two Shinigami landed near the riverbank.
Standard black shihakushō.
Division insignia: Tenth Division.
They surveyed the dissolved remains.
"A Hollow…? Here?"
One crouched.
"Mask forcibly removed?"
The other looked at Sombravida.
"You did this?"
"Yes."
"You? A blind civilian?"
"Spiritual perception," Sombravida replied calmly. "I located its structure and struck by chance."
They examined the remains again.
No Zanpakutō wound.
No purification mark.
It had been destroyed, not cleansed.
"Unusual method."
The black-haired one shrugged.
"Lucky strike, I guess."
Sombravida remained silent.
The Shinigami drew his Zanpakutō and stabbed the remaining mask remnant.
Black reishi dispersed fully.
Official procedure complete.
"Don't wander beyond the safe boundary again," one warned. "Hollows occasionally slip through."
"We'll report this."
They vanished via Shunpo.
Sombravida watched them go.
Yes.
Report it as patrol suppression.
Better that way.
He carried Tōshirō on his back and lifted Momo in his arms.
Retrieved the fish basket.
And walked home.
Aftermath
Grandmother listened quietly as Sombravida simplified the explanation.
No mention of mask consumption.
No mention of experimentation.
Only: a Hollow appeared. It was killed.
She stroked the children's foreheads.
"Grandma hopes you three will always protect each other."
Sombravida nodded.
He could not promise the future.
He could only survive it.
He pointed at the fish basket.
"These will spoil. Let's prepare them."
The old woman agreed.
"Pick two watermelons. Exchange them for rice and sweet natto at the night market."
Sombravida complied.
In Rukongai, barter mattered more than currency.
Food was stability.
Watermelon was value.
As he walked toward the backyard, his expression darkened slightly.
The experiment had confirmed something crucial:
Hollow reishi and Shinigami reishi conflict violently.
But they do not annihilate each other completely.
With proper control—
A hybrid system might be constructed.
And if he could construct it—
Then one day,
He would not merely face Aizen.
He would surpass him.
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