Despite her best efforts over months of hunting Sung-Sun hadn't succeeded in becoming a Vasto Lorde.
She had just consumed another Adjuchas, but still nothing happened.
Sung-Sun's tailed slammed into the ground hard. "Why can't I evolve?!" she said with frustration.
"It's ok Sung-Sun, you'll be able to soon enough," Harribel tried to reassure her.
Mila Rose put had hand on Sung-Sun's back as a show of support.
"It's been months and nothing!" Sung-Sun yelled. There was none of her usual coy and playful attitude. It seemed she was hitting her limit.
Nel Tu climbed up on Sung-Sun's head. "I believe in you. Just keep trying," she told Sung-Sun.
Sung-Sun sighed. Even the child was trying to reassure her. Unfortunately this feeling just made the situation worse rather than better. She wondered about how pathetic was she being. She couldn't force herself to just get over it though.
"Maybe we should take a little break to calm down. We have been pushing ourselves for a few months now after all. Taking our minds off it for a while might actually be a good thing," Hisashi offered.
Sung-Sun just gave a listless nod.
"Ok, let's do that," Harribel agreed.
Nel Tu smiled. "Yay, then we can play even more!" she shouted in excitement.
Hisashi shook his head with a smile. Nothing seemed to phase the ever positive Nel Tu. She always tried to find the positive in any situation even if it was just being able to play games with her friends.
It was bittersweet sometimes. Watching her and playing with her sometimes reminded him of when his sister was still little, which in turn reminded him of how much time he had missed with her. How much time he was currently missing with her. At least a lot less time had passed for Reina than had for him. He hadn't been able to see her for over two years now even if only a couple of weeks had passed from her perspective. He shouldn't dwell too much on such thoughts. They didn't help any after all and he was doing his best to improve things. He was already getting so close now that he was a Vasto Lorde.
They managed to make it back to the hideout after a few more weeks and instead of focusing on getting Sung-Sun to evolve they let her relax for a while instead. Only Hisashi was still going out to hunt closer by to maintain his continued growth. He did take more time off to spend with everyone else and sometimes Nel Tu came along with him to play while he hunted.
Apacci still regularly challenged him to spars. She still wasn't satisfied with any of their outcomes, but she kept trying regardless of the outcomes. She was determined to beat him someday. A day he knew would never come due to his broken abilities and system. Currently even if she became an Arrancar she would be lucky to tie with him, let alone win and he was still growing faster than her now that she had become a Vasto Lorde.
Mila Rose had returned to her lazier self as soon as she became a Vasto Lorde. Although she enjoyed hunting she enjoyed lazing about more. Now that the pressure of both growing and the worry of losing progress were gone she really decided to enjoy her time.
Hisashi had taken the extra time he had to think about his options and had finally managed to figure out an option that could help him. His major fear of even being around Aizen was the fear of getting hypnotised. Sure Aizen was pretty powerful and skilled at Kidō, but those were honestly nowhere near as scary as the possibility of no longer being able to trust anything your senses are telling you, now that was downright terrifying.
The epiphany he had was the thought of using his Illusory Aura not against others, but turning it against himself to prevent him from seeing Aizen's Zanpakuto making it impossible for him to be hypnotised. Sure it would make it a little harder to fight Aizen if he couldn't see his sword, but it was a small price to pay to be completely impervious to his hypnotism. Better yet if Aizen did try to use his Zanpakuto on him it would likely lead to him lowering his guard at least a little thinking he could control him through his Zanpakuto's ability.
He couldn't go looking for Aizen though. If he wanted Aizen to lower his guard as much as he could the other thing he would need was for Aizen or at least Las Noches to reach out to him rather than the other way around. He couldn't have Aizen thinking he wanted to join them without being invited first.
That only left two worries though. First whether he would be forced to transform into an Arrancar upon joining and whether that would fail the mission, he suspected it probably wouldn't since the mission didn't mention it, but he couldn't recall the system ever outright mentioning a failure condition beyond them being implied by the description of the mission. It was a risk he just might need to take if he wanted to get close to the Hōgyoku.
The other worry was Nel Tu. She currently wouldn't be able to return to Las Noches as her and her Fracción were simply too weak as they were now, he also wouldn't want to leave her to fend for herself now even if they were relatively powerful compared to any regular Hollow. He had grown quite fond of the girl over the many months they spent together. Protecting her, playing games with her. Even her Fracción had grown on him a little, just a little though.
In the middle of his train of thought he was interrupted by his system.
[New Mission: Heal Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck]
[Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck was attacked by Nnoitra Gilga damaging her Hollow mask transforming her into her current child form, sealing her power and memories in the process. Heal the damage to her mask to regain a powerful ally.]
[Reward: Skill - Karinzanjutsu]
-X-X-X-
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Writing Soundtrack: Drowning Pool - Various Tracks