"You really are a cold and heartless person."
Rukia walked over and elbowed Haruki, teasing him. "Among them is Matsumoto Rangiku. I remember you two being quite close, no?"
Haruki remained unfazed and said, "With two captains there, if they can't even protect their own subordinates, then the Gotei 13 would be utterly useless."
"Haha, then aren't you worried about that guy getting hurt?"
Haruki replied, "With us around, if something still happens to him, then we'd be the useless ones."
"Alright, let's not dwell on this. We still have two people to find."
"Who?"
"Of course, the two people you want to find," Haruki said seriously. "Shiba Kaien and Abarai Renji."
"Ha..." Rukia couldn't help but laugh. "Do you think I'm like my foolish main self? I don't care about their lives!"
Haruki glanced at her and said, "Right, you don't care about them, but your main self does. You don't want your main self to live in regret forever, do you?"
"..." Rukia's smile instantly faded.
She gave Haruki a deep look and said, "You know... I really hate the look in your eyes right now."
"Huh?" Haruki was puzzled. "My eyes?"
"Exactly." Rukia stared at Haruki intently and said gravely, "It's that look of yours, like you can see through everything!"
"...Really?" Haruki chuckled awkwardly. "I never thought of it that way."
"Maybe." Rukia didn't press further. She said, "Hueco Mundo is your territory. Finding people should be your job, right?"
"Of course." Haruki shrugged.
It seemed that while Rukia claimed her ability allowed her to appear beside any deceased being, there were still distance limitations. At the very least, she couldn't instantly appear beside Renji or pinpoint his location.
Honestly, the spatial movement ability was quite similar to the abilities of Dark Rukia from the movie.
Not only did they look alike, but their abilities were also similar, which made Haruki wonder if there was some connection between the two.
Of course, the methods of their creation were completely different.
The Dark Rukia from the movie was created through a complex process—
First, a test subject of Urahara Kisuke, a parasitic Hollow, parasitized a pair of siblings from the Rukongai. Eventually, the siblings fused with Rukia's body.
This gave birth to Dark Rukia.
In other words, this Dark Rukia was composed of four different souls.
The parasitic Hollow, the Rukongai siblings, and Rukia herself...
This was why Dark Rukia possessed multiple abilities, such as spatial movement and memory erasure.
The current Dark Rukia, however, was created when the Hōgyoku read Rukia's desires and attracted White, who then transferred into her body.
After White entered Rukia's body, the Hōgyoku caused a special reaction with Rukia's soul, resulting in the fusion of a "second personality."
So, theoretically, the two were completely different.
But why did they end up with such similar appearances and abilities? That was something Haruki couldn't understand at the moment.
"Stark, could you keep an eye on White for me? Then you can head back to Las Noches. I'll take Rukia to find my subordinate."
Stark remained seated, and Haruki disappeared with Rukia.
"Shiba Kaien's spiritual pressure... has disappeared."
Dark Rukia couldn't help but say, "Was it your doing?"
"Not me..."
Haruki said softly, "I haven't been in Hueco Mundo for long, and I certainly didn't interfere with what happened to the expedition team."
He wasn't entirely sure what Dark Rukia was really thinking.
Although she kept belittling her main self and acted like she didn't care about her, Haruki knew there was another character like this in the original story.
Wasn't that White inside Ichigo Kurosaki?!
That's right, they didn't care about the people Ichigo cared about, but they cared about Ichigo himself!
Dark Rukia claimed she didn't care about Renji or Shiba Kaien, whom Rukia cared about, but she might still care deeply about her main self.
"Is that so..." Rukia nodded, seemingly accepting Haruki's explanation.
The two of them moved through Hueco Mundo, gradually searching for Abarai Renji's whereabouts.
In fact, Haruki had already sent people to look for Renji and had a general idea of his location. With Rukia's abilities, finding Renji wasn't too difficult.
About a day after leaving the ruins, they found Renji.
Renji was currently in a grove of quartz trees.
Quartz trees were somewhat unique to Hueco Mundo. In this vast desert, there were no cacti or similar plants, but there were some pale, quartz-like structures that formed trees.
These trees could be used to hide one's presence, so it seemed Renji wasn't completely foolish and knew to conceal himself in Hueco Mundo.
However, this also meant he was avoiding attacks from something.
"Strange... this spiritual pressure... what's going on?"
Rukia frowned and said, "It feels similar to Shiba Kaien's spiritual pressure. Could he still be alive?"
"..." Haruki remained silent for a moment. He had also sensed the spiritual pressure.
He said, "This spiritual pressure isn't just similar... it's exactly the same."
That's right, this spiritual pressure was identical to Shiba Kaien's. But according to Aizen, Shiba Kaien should have already met his end.
Which meant...
Was it the former Novena Espada, Aaroniero Arruruerie?
Aaroniero was a very unique existence among the Espada because he was merely a Gillian, the lowest class of Menos Grande.
He became an Espada due to his exceptional potential—he was a "Gluttonous Hollow"!
Gluttonous Hollows were an extremely special type of Hollow because...
They could evolve infinitely!
They could endlessly devour the abilities and memories of the Hollows they consumed, allowing them to grow without limits.
It seemed he had devoured Shiba Kaien, though it was unclear if he had also consumed Metastacia...
A Gluttonous Hollow...
This kind of Hollow was quite interesting. They could grow infinitely and gain endless abilities. Wasn't that similar to himself?
However...
A being like himself only needed to exist once.
"I'll go save Renji. Can you deal with that guy?"
Haruki said to Rukia.
"Why should I bother with such a troublesome task?" Rukia's gaze was fixed ahead, seemingly vacant and unfocused.
"At the very least..."
Haruki had already started moving.
"You can't appear in front of Renji looking like this, right?"
"That would scare him to death."