Chapter 193 – 193 ⥤ Rising, Ever Rising!

Seeing their master subdued by the fierce Shinigami, Sung-Sun and the other Hollows became anxious.

They abandoned Nelliel and launched a frenzied attack at Akira, shouting threats.

“You bastard, let go of Lady Harribel!”

“Touch Lady Harribel with those filthy hands again and I’ll bite them off!”

“I’ll kill you, you bastard!”

Akira tightened the chains, looked up at the three charging Hollows, and grinned.

Soon, Sung-Sun and the others met Harribel’s fate. The three massive beings crashed to the ground after a single exchange, unable to rise again.

Looking at the scene before her, the foolish antelope sensed something was amiss.

This Shinigami’s words and actions didn’t match. He wasn’t injured at all — in fact, he was extraordinarily powerful. The fierce-looking Adjuchas and Vasto Lorde had proven to be the weak ones.

His treatment of Harribel was particularly telling. He bound her in various patterns—hogtied, tortoise shell, diamond rope — as if playing with a new toy.

After consideration, Akira freed Harribel, removing both restraints and Reiatsu suppression. His goal was persuasion, not violent conquest. Besides, with the foolish antelope watching, he wished to avoid leaving any bad impressions on the child.

Though surprised, Harribel didn’t resist. The gap in power was too vast — she and this Shinigami who so casually threw his sword weren’t even in the same league. He had clearly been holding back, and continuing to resist would be ungrateful.

“What exactly do you want?” She stared intently at him, trying to read his eyes.

Unfortunately, lacking Nelliel’s talent, she couldn’t discern whether his intentions were good or bad.

“As a protagonist like myself, naturally it’s to see justice through to the end.” He waved his hand and repeated his persuasive speech from earlier.

Harribel was dumbfounded. Unlike the simple-minded antelope, she wouldn’t easily trust this man’s words.

The species barrier between them was an unbridgeable chasm. The conflict between Shinigami and Hollows couldn’t be resolved with mere words. Moreover, Hollows evolved by consuming Shinigami souls — this fact alone made peaceful coexistence impossible.

When one side constantly sought to devour the other, even simple cooperation seemed forced.

In all her years roaming Hueco Mundo, Harribel had never heard of Hollows and Shinigami working together.

While she pondered this, Akira had already moved to secure Sung-Sun and the others. His heavy-handedness had left them unconscious.

Mimicking his earlier star-gazing globe, he extended the black chains to a hundred meters, tied up the three Hollows securely, then mounted the antelope.

“Nelliel, let’s go!”

His practiced movements left Nelliel stunned — when had she become his personal mount?

This guy was being completely inconsiderate. Feeling the heavy iron ball dragging behind her, she had a sudden urge to throw him off.

“Akira, I think we need to talk.” Nelliel stood still, gripping her double-headed spear with a serious expression.

“Feel free to raise any questions you have.” Akira clapped his hands, “As a guardian of justice, I shall answer everything without holding back.”

To be honest, his entire conversation with Nelliel had been truthful, without a single lie.

This conversational method he had learned from Aizen. Lies are easily seen through, but truths aren’t necessarily so. When one masters using truth to hide their thoughts, no one can perceive their true intentions.

Of course, being too familiar with him, this trick didn’t work on the psycho himself. After several attempts, Akira had briefly suspected Aizen of secretly learning mind-reading.

But Aizen’s response was equally sincere, “If I needed to resort to techniques like mind-reading when dealing with you, I might as well give up on plotting anything and be content as a Captain.”

Hearing these words, Akira was instantly furious and that night tripled Kisuke’s workload.

Seeing his cooperation, Nelliel felt much more at ease, “How do you plan to make Harribel and the others recognize your goodwill? How can we eliminate the prejudice between Death Gods and Hollows? Can this meaningless conflict really be resolved? When can everyone live peacefully under the same sky?”

“…” Akira was dumbfounded.

Seeing the foolish antelope rambling endlessly, he quickly raised his hand to stop her. With his single-core processor of a brain, any more questions would make it crash.

“That’s too many questions. Once we get back to Las Noches, I’ll find you a wise person — second only to me in wisdom — who will answer all your questions one by one.”

Nelliel thought for a few seconds, then nodded obediently. Carrying Akira while dragging the huge iron ball, she headed toward where the moon was rising.

After hesitating for a while, Harribel gritted her teeth and followed.

She had no choice — she couldn’t win in a fight, and Sung-Sun and the others were in his hands. As their only family, she couldn’t just watch them be taken away by a Shinigami.

Especially to a place like Las Noches.

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“Sōsuke, Sōsuke!”

When that voice echoed through Las Noches once again, a cheerful atmosphere instantly filled the air.

Aizen emerged from the laboratory, taken aback by the sight before him. There sat Akira atop a half-human antelope, looking every bit like a triumphant general.

Two Vasto Lordes and three unconscious Adjuchas — this guy’s efficiency was simply absurd.

“Let me introduce Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, the sole knight of Hueco Mundo and self-proclaimed guardian of justice.”

As Akira made the introduction, Nelliel proudly puffed out her chest, beaming beneath her antelope mask.

Aizen studied them briefly before decidedly giving up on understanding their logic.

Another fool just like that brute — their combined intelligence wasn’t worth one of Kisuke’s fingers. Not worth the trouble.

“Akira, is this Sōsuke your friend?” Nelliel whispered, turning her head, “Why does he look not very bright?”

Akira leaned in close, “Though he looks dim, that’s just his appearance. He’s the one I mentioned whose wisdom is second only to mine. When you have questions later, just ask him directly.”

Nelliel nodded, appearing to somewhat understand.

Listening to their hushed exchange, Aizen’s eyes narrowed as his blood pressure climbed.

He didn’t need to guess — knowing Akira as he did, this guy must have made grand promises to Nelliel, then dumped the responsibility on him. Typical of someone who creates chaos but avoids dealing with the consequences.

After introducing Nelliel, Akira gestured toward the figure standing by the iron ball.

“That’s Tier Harribel, the shark lady. Old Baraggan tried recruiting her as a subordinate multiple times but failed, even losing quite a few men in the process. Tch, beneath my dignity to associate with.”

Harribel: “…”

If only Baraggan had been as shameless as you, he might have succeeded immediately. At least he attempted proper recruitment, unlike someone who simply confronted her directly.

Just thinking about Akira’s overwhelming power made Harribel weary. She had only wanted a peaceful existence, but that dream seemed increasingly impossible.

First, Baraggan had targeted her, sending waves of Adjuchas to recruit her. Forced to defend herself, she had struck them down, thoroughly antagonizing Las Noches.

Just when Baraggan fell, before she could even breathe easily, this strange Shinigami appeared, rambling about justice and some spirit training him. Now at his mercy, Harribel had abandoned all hope for her future.

Suddenly, a shadow dropped from the newly built platform. A fierce Reiatsu swept across the area.

Harribel narrowed her eyes, focusing on the figure.

A panther-form Adjuchas with powerful Reiatsu, nearly at Vasto Lorde level.

“Your Majesty, about that fight you promised me…”

Grimmjow roared at Akira, attempting to challenge him, but before he could finish, Akira grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and gestured to Harribel.

“This is Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, my sworn brother and beloved friend. When he hurts, I hurt. If you want to vent your frustrations, feel free to beat him up.”

Grimmjow: “?”

Harribel’s gaze lingered, shifting between the man and the panther. After a moment, she nodded at Akira.

Immediately, the righteous character revealed a demon-like grin and threw the pink panther into the desert outside Las Noches. Though Grimmjow had planned to resist, upon sensing his opponent’s powerful Reiatsu, his eyes lit up.

This was perfect — His Majesty hadn’t lied. Las Noches had gained another powerful warrior, and in such a short time, they’d convinced another Vasto Lorde to join.

Harribel didn’t hesitate. Raising her massive bone sword and releasing her partially recovered Reiatsu, she slashed straight ahead. Since she couldn’t beat Akira, taking out her anger on his subordinate would have to do.

Still harboring resentment, the shark lady struck out violently, her golden Reiatsu painting Las Noches’ sky.

After calming the shark’s emotions and leaving Nelliel with Aizen, Akira contentedly became an absentee leader, wandering around the expanding Las Noches, occasionally offering his precious advice to the constructing Adjuchas.

For example, he suggested erecting a 1:100 scale statue of the Hollow God-King — himself, of course — in the central plaza, so Las Noches’ hollows could constantly admire their lord’s majestic visage.

Through Aizen’s rhetoric and witnessing the prosperity firsthand — a scene completely different from other parts of Hueco Mundo — Nelliel fully believed Akira’s earlier words and firmly declared she would dedicate her life to Las Noches’ righteous cause.

As for Harribel, though she had strongly resisted joining any faction initially, Las Noches was nothing like she had imagined. Life here wasn’t oppressive at all.

On the contrary, the Hollows had shed their former violence, living peacefully under the same night sky — something almost impossible to find elsewhere in Hueco Mundo. It was hard to understand exactly what that man had done to the Adjuchas.

Since Sung-Sun and the others didn’t resist life in Las Noches, Harribel decided to stay as well.

Las Noches was flourishing!

Under the moonlight, Akira crossed his arms, contentedly gazing at the empire built by his own hands, feeling that overthrowing Yama-jii’s tyranny was within reach.

After these reflections, Aizen opened a Garganta, and the two returned to Soul Society together.

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Success in Hueco Mundo, failure in Soul Society.

Life is sometimes like that — you never know whether tomorrow or the unexpected will come first. Especially when Akira returned to the 11th Division and found the white-bearded old man sitting in the captain’s seat.

In an instant, he broke into a cold sweat. Instinctively, he stepped back, hoping to escape.

But his Danger Instinct sent unprecedented warnings — moving forward might give him a slim chance of survival, while retreating meant certain death.

“Captain-Commander.” With this thought, Akira straightened his back, walked directly into the room, and asked brazenly, “What brings you to my Eleventh Division?”

Seeing such confident behavior, Genryūsai’s expression froze, the scolding on the tip of his tongue momentarily forgotten.

“Where have you been these past few days?” The old man asked.

Akira’s expression stiffened, and after a light cough, he made his excuse, “Training in the Rukongai.”

Genryūsai narrowed his eyes, flames burning in his pupils, “I sent people to all your usual training spots, but no one found any trace of you. As Captain of the Eleventh Division, abandoning your post — do you understand the consequences?”

Akira gave an awkward smile, making one last attempt, “Master, hear my explanation…”

“Reduce All Creation to Ash…”

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That day, Reiatsu as terrifying as a falling sun rose from the 11th Division’s barracks, blanketing nearly half of the Seireitei.

As a reward for his wayward disciple’s power increase, Genryūsai didn’t just use his fists as usual, but drew Ryūjin Jakka, which typically served to roast sweet potatoes year-round.

As a result, Akira relived the nightmare of his early days in the Genryū Style. Strong, hearty wails echoed continuously above the barracks.

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After thoroughly beating his rebellious disciple, Genryūsai felt refreshed.

After some reflection, he looked at Akira, who lay on the floor like a dead fish, and said irritably,

“If I’m not mistaken, these past few days… You were in Hueco Mundo, weren’t you?”

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep