LIGHTNOVELONLINE 106 – The Mantis
Harribel looked at him nervously. She surprised him when she stepped forward and hugged him tightly. She breathed in deeply
He smiled softly. "No need to worry. You'll be fine. I'm sure of it," he said.
To give himself an alibi he took a mission and left a few hours before she would go through the process. After getting far enough from Las Noches for his comfort he used his Illusory Aura to turn invisible and returned to Harribel's room in time to join her.
Menoly was the one that came to pick Harribel up and guided her through Las Noches' many hallways. She didn't even have a clue Hisashi was following them. Between his [Illusory Aura] perfectly hiding him visually, his [Silencioso] muffling all sound he generated, and [Spirit Power Concealment] completely hiding his spiritual pressure signature it was virtually impossible to notice him unless you came into physical contact with him.
Between Menoly and Harribel, neither of which were the talkative type, it was a very quiet journey through the bowels of Las Noches until they reached the lab that was prepared for Harribel's transformation.
The laboratory was rather bare, a flight of stairs led down into the room which followed in the usual design principles that guided Las Noches. White walls and white tiled floors.
Menoly looked at Harribel. "Someone will come to start soon," she said.
She left as soon as her task was completed.
Harribel looked around for a few moments before leaning against a wall.
Hisashi tried looking around the laboratory seeing if he could find the Hōgyoku. Given that he had seen it present when used to transform a Hollow in the series he was hoping he could again. However he didn't seem to have such luck. 'Aizen just leaving it laying around would indeed be too convenient I guess,' he thought.
It took a while, but eventually Szayelaporro Granz showed up wearing his fake smile.
"Ah good. You're already here. Aizen-sama asked me to get things ready," he said.
Harribel looked over neutrally and simply nodded.
"Please come over to the centre of the room and assume a comfortable position," he instructed.
Harribel sat down as instructed and assumed a meditative pose with crossed legs.
Hisashi walked over to stand not far from her.
"As part of the process you'll be tied with sealing bandages, once they're applied you won't be able to move until the process is over. Is there anything you need to do before we apply them?" He asked.
She shook her head.
"Good. Then let's get started," he said.
He activated some kind of mechanism and clear white bandages shot out from gaps in the floor wrapping around Harribel tightly sealing her body. After multiple layers they had interwoven into a sort of pseudo-cocoon vaguely shaped like her.
Szayelaporro stood by waiting patiently. When the sealing process completed he let out an evil chuckle. "You must be feeling so proud of yourself. I can only imagine. After all you came waltzing in all high and mighty. Invited by Aizen-sama himself even," he said.
He sighed deeply. "Letting Nelliel go after crippling her was a mistake. We didn't foresee she would ever be able to recover. But here she is and all of you came along with her. It's only a matter of time before she outranks us again. Just a matter of time before we pay for our previous actions," he continued.
He started slowly walking around her as he continued to talk. He seemed to enjoy hearing himself talk. Or maybe it was the knowledge he was inflicting mental anguish on someone. Most likely a little bit of both.
"It seems despite what happened Nelliel is still a fool though. Thinking we can't do anything about her. Her arrogance led to her fall once and it will again. All we need to do is weaken the new support she found. You aren't even Arrancar yet. Taking care of you is easy. If it weren't for our desire to keep this from Aizen we would have already taken care of you," he said.
Hisashi slowly approached him.
Szayelaporro looked her up and down and laughed. "Yet here you are. Willingly putting yourself in my hands." he said.
He smirked. "I know you can still hear me. Too bad you can't do anything anymore," he said.
He took out a a syringe filled with an unknown deep red liquid. "You see. Now that you can't even defend yourself just a little poison effective on Hollow administered before you undergo the transformation and everyone thinks you simply failed at becoming an Arrancar. That you were too garbage to become one even with the assistance of the Hōgyoku and soon after no one will remember you. We'll make sure of that by sending your friends after you soon enough," he said.
He lifted the syringe up to eye level, tapped the glass to let the bubbles rise and pressed the stopper until a little bit of the liquid came out of the needle.
He smiled venomously. "If there is one thing you can be thankful for is that it won't hurt... just kidding... it will hurt a lot and you won't even be able to scream. If you're unlucky you might hold on until Aizen comes to start the process in over an hour. Just imagine suffering untold pain without even the relief of venting it by screaming for that long. How delightful," he said
He casually walked up to her ready to inject the poison and finish his task.
Suddenly he felt a piercing pain in his chest. He looked down. He saw a stab wound on his chest leaking blood, but not the cause.
He coughed. "W-wha?" he barely managed to mutter.
Some blood leaked from his mouth. He struggled to turn his neck to look behind him, but surprisingly there was nothing there either.
Before he realised it he felt pain again, this time from his neck as his vision spun erratically.
It wasn't until the last moment he realised he was dead and he didn't even know who was responsible.
