Harribel had still been a little awkward. She had moved into the room beside Hisashi and Nelliel, but things still hadn't quite gone back to the way they had been before Nelliel returned to her adult form nor had they settled into a comfortable new normal yet as Harribel was still adjusting.
Hisashi couldn't quite blame her as she had gotten closer to Nelliel than any of the others except for him, but unlike him she'd had no clue that her child form wasn't her true form so the sudden change must have been quite shocking. She seemed to have started treating her like a daughter and suddenly the daughter turned out to be older and more powerful than herself even.
Not only that, but Harribel had also grown a bit closer to him at the same as they took care of Nel Tu. This had been perfectly fine when Nelliel had been in her child form however now it made things a lot more awkward since Nelliel was still extremely close with him, but as an adult woman. This made Hisashi's relationship with Harribel a little more awkward than it had been too, though still far better than it had been before Nelliel and her Fracción joined their little group of misfits.
He decided to remain positive though expecting that they would eventually work things out and that all she needed was a little time before opening back up more again. He hoped so at least since he really liked Harribel and was appreciating their new and improved relationship. Only time would tell.
The Tres Bestias were almost the odd ones out for nothing much changing. They had been with Harribel for so long and had long grown used to being around Hisashi too. They actually ended up moving an extra bed to one bedroom and sharing it between the three of them. They said they had grown so used to it over the years that it felt strange to have separate rooms. Too quiet for them.
Sung-Sun being the only not fully humanoid one among them didn't have a bed and instead built a kind of nest on the floor that worked well with her snake tail.
Beyond settling in they had been dealing with some low-ranking missions for Las Noches that they were given to help them get used to how things worked and also to help the interests of Las Noches, or truthfully Aizen.
The kinds of missions they had come across so far were as follows.
Invitation missions. Just as they had been invited to join Las Noches Aizen liked to invite promising Hollows to join Las Noches. In rare cases like theirs Aizen might show up. One level below that an Espada might show up to negotiate the invite. Those were quite rare though and most of these types of missions were left to the Números, those below the Espada, which started at Número 11 based on the time they joined Las Noches. These missions simply required travelling to the party and trying to convince them to join Las Noches.
Elimination missions. The name was pretty self-explanatory. There were some Hollows and even natural Arrancar that didn't want to play nice with Aizen's plans and as such were in need of elimination. Those missions were handed out to members of Las Noches based on the estimated power of the targets.
Research missions. This was a much broader group of missions. It ranged from things like acting as a guinea pig for Las Noches' research division to things like investigating, gathering various resources, and potential guinea pigs in Hueco Mundo for that same division. Interacting with the members of the research division was the worst part of those jobs. None of them seemed to be quite normal even when compared to the unusual standards for Hueco Mundo.
Some of the higher ranked missions might even require travel outside of Hueco Mundo, but those were reserved for actual Arrancar so they hadn't had a chance to take any of those yet.
Hisashi had been quite prolific going on plenty of missions over the time he had been in Las Noches, sometimes joined by some of the other girls and even a handful of weaker Numerós if the mission required it.
The only ones unable to join in on any of them were Dondochakka and Pesche who were forced to remain in Las Noches due to their weakness.
He had been most particular about taking elimination missions for obvious reasons. It allowed him to travel outside Las Noches and consume more Hollows to spur his growth to greater heights. For the same reason invitation missions were the second most common, he might not be able to hunt and consume the missions target, but he could still hunt on the way there and back. Things might have been slowing down, but he wasn't going to stop working at it. Every little bit could help him and those dearest to him survive the things to come.
He tended to avoid the research missions though. They were the least profitable for his goals and he really didn't like interacting with the research division least of all Szayelaporro partly because he creeped him out and also because he struggled to contain his killing intent for him. Since he and Nnoitra were the ones that injured Nelliel those two were probably the two he hated most in Las Noche. At least currently. Though some of the other Arrancar annoyed him those two if the opportunity presented itself he would definitely kill them.
Hisashi was reviewing his progress.
[+6 weeks to age]
[+4,100,733 XP from Hollow]
[+200,970 Spirit Power from Hollow]
[+184,892 Spirit Power from Spiritual Energy Absorption]
[+10 Levels]
[+10 Stat points]
=Status Panel=
[Name: Saito Hisashi]
[Soul Age: 59]
[Race: Hollow]
[Rank: Vasto Lorde]
[Level: 272 -> 282]
[XP: 143,457/399,030]
=Stats:=
[Strength: 325]
[Dexterity: 658]
[Constitution: 175]
[Intelligence: 260]
[Spirit Power: 4,335,149 -> 4,721,011]
[Available Stat Points: 0 -> 10]
=Passive Skills:=
[Spiritual Energy Absorption]
[Ultra-Speed Regeneration]
[Acidic Touch]
[Silencioso]
=Active Skills:=
[Soul-Body Separation]
[Spirit Power Concealment]
[Illusory Aura]
[Blut]
[Energy Blade]
[Transcribe]
[Hachigyō Sōgai]
[Cero]
[Kūmon]
[Negación]
[Skill Infusion]
[Sonído]
[Karinzanjutsu]
'Let's put five in Strength, two in Dexterity, and the rest in Intelligence' he told the system.
[Strength: 325 -> 330]
[Dexterity: 658 -> 660]
[Intelligence: 260 -> 263]
[Available Stat Points: 10 -> 0]
-X-X-X-
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Writing Soundtrack: Ice Nine Kills - Various Tracks