Gabriel stretched, feeling the tension from hours of research fade from his muscles. He was excited to show Harribel what he had learned, maybe even brag a little.
You know, who else could crack down on how to make Kidō spells their own in the span of like 12 hours?
With his new buff, he was like twice as strong as usual now.
Four arms, a mouth on his stomach, and him being like 14 feet tall—shit was pretty perfect, even though he had to get shorter to fit through the door. That didn't matter. It still showed how much of a monster he truly was.
Maybe he should experiment on Shinigami even more.
Stealing their Shikai abilities was like prime real estate to him.
Maybe he should aim for a noble next time. He heard they had the good stuff.
So now, he planned to show his wife his accomplishment. However...
When she took one look at him and deadpanned:
"Nothing's happening between us as long as you have that stomach mouth."
...
Wait. What?
His smug grin vanished. He blinked, then looked down at his abomination of a second mouth.
It grinned back at him.
But... he was perfect. He was perfect.
He looked back at his wife.
She was dead serious.
Maybe he could make her see reason if he told her the shit it could do... yeah, maybe that.
"...But babe, it can cast Kidō while I punch people—"
"No."
"But imagine—Shakkahō to the face while I—"
"No."
"But it's revolutionary—"
"NO."
Gabriel stared. Wow. So this is what it felt like to be truly defeated. No argument he came up with could sway her against the wonderful creation that was his stomach mouth.
Then he sighed in absolute defeat.
Why couldn't she accept his perfect creation, his gift to the world?
He looked at his stomach mouth, which seemed to be looking back at him.
"I am sorry, little one," Gabriel almost seemed like he was going to cry.
"I understand," the mouth replied back. Since it shared Gabriel's brain and thus his feelings, it understood what took priority between fun time with wifey and a mouth on his stomach.
Fun time won every single time. And it wasn't even close.
Harribel sighed again. Here he goes being dramatic again.
Gabriel placed his hand on his stomach.
"Use Abyssal Fracture for me, hit that good."
"I will, brother," Gabriel said a bit sadly as his stomach mouth vanished.
"Happy?" he asked, looking at his wife.
"Hm."
"Women are cruel."
"Hm."
POV Change – Tokinada Tsunayashiro
Tokinada leaned back in his chair, listening as his loyal subordinate—or so he thought—gave her report.
"Although we found the Fullbringer, we were attacked by Arrancar," she said.
Tokinada's brow furrowed.
Arrancar?
That was... unexpected.
"Arrancar?" He tapped his fingers against the armrest. "There shouldn't be that many of them."
After all, naturally born Arrancar were rare. There were, what, like five or six at best?
He was willing to bet that on how much of a saint he was.
If only he knew there was one Arrancar for every sin he ever committed. Somehow, there weren't as many for every sin committed by a noble. That list would be way too freaking long. It would take Gabriel a long time to get there. And by the time he reached that number, they would have more than doubled.
Well, back to the woman-beater. Who may or may not have hit a griddy and a Nay-Nay on his wife's grave.
He studied the woman carefully.
She looked beaten up, barely standing.
Her left arm hung uselessly at her side, blood dripping from her wounds.
It looked convincing.
Very convincing.
"...And your entire squad was slaughtered?" he asked.
She nodded weakly.
"I barely made it out alive."
Tokinada narrowed his eyes.
Something felt... off.
But, logically, it checked out.
A lone survivor? Not uncommon.
Squad slaughtered? Typical Hollow behavior.
Still, something nagged at him.
"Hmm... Tell me more about these Hollows."
"They claimed to be part of a new Hollow Empire," she said, voice steady.
That made him pause.
Hollow Empire?
His fingers stilled.
"Empire, you say?"
"Yes. Hueco Mundo has a new ruler. They were organized, disciplined... and powerful."
Now that was interesting.
Last he checked, Hueco Mundo was a wasteland.
A skeleton ruled it—a weak, pathetic excuse of a king that the Soul Society barely acknowledged.
And now, suddenly, a Hollow Empire?
He almost laughed.
There was no way.
Hollows were beasts.
They lacked order.
They devoured each other like rabid dogs.
There was no chance they had built something functional.
But...
Just to appease his curiosity...
Tokinada tapped his chin, then smirked.
"Fine. Let's see how true this is."
He turned to his attendants.
"Summon several high-ranking members of the Stealth Force. Send them into Hueco Mundo. I want them to scout the land—see if it's changed."
His eyes gleamed.
"If there really is an empire... I want to know who's leading it."
And if it was that skeleton again, he would kill this girl's whole family for daring to lie to him like this. Have him waste his precious time. He could be busy doing a lot of shit right now.
Like acting like a young master. Or hitting the Nay-Nay on his wife's grave. Or even better yet, stepping on the head of some commoner. Maybe fucking a commoner's wife and making him watch.
Who could possibly stop him? He was a noble. To Soul Society, he was a god.
Now, going to his room, he spun a wheel to decide what to do today.
As the wheel spun...
It landed on his favorite activity.
"Embezzle money meant for helping low-background students and use it to buy himself something nice."
Oh yeah. He worked hard enough. He deserved that.
He would have liked it to land on "making someone's day worse."
Maybe go to the black man and tell him how he brutally beat his best friend.
"It's not my fault she died. I told her I would blow her back out—she thought it meant sex. She should have known I meant it literally... silly woman."
A/N....yes, this is the version of Tokinada I am using, I don't think I am far off.