"Shopkeeper, I'm here again."
Tsuna called out as he pushed open the door to Urahara Shop.
"Tsuna-kun, what can I do for you? Or have you taken a liking to something in my shop?" Kisuke Urahara said with his usual playful tone as he walked out.
"If there were anything here I really wanted, I'd have taken it already. Where is everyone else?"
"They went to the warehouse with Tessai to restock," Urahara replied.
"Perfect. Then I need a favor from you."
"My services are very expensive, you know," Urahara said, pretending to make things difficult.
"That's fine. Put it on Ichigo Kurosaki's tab." Tsuna then called toward the entrance, "Inoue-san's brother, come in."
Sora Inoue's spirit floated into the shop. He hadn't wanted to enter at first—his instincts told him this place was extremely dangerous.
"A spirit body? You shouldn't need me just to perform a Soul Burial, should you?" Urahara asked, lowering the brim of his hat slightly.
"It's like this…"
Tsuna explained Sora's decision to Urahara from beginning to end.
"Become a Hollow? Is his obsession really that strong?" Urahara circled Sora once, then said bluntly, "Forgive me for saying this, but it's meaningless. Hollows are formed from souls whose hearts have become hollow. Once the heart is gone, maintaining reason is nearly impossible."
He turned to Tsuna and said,
"Tsuna-kun, I have more authority to speak on this than you do. Send him on."
"Ordinary souls, yes, it would be meaningless. But shopkeeper…" Tsuna pulled Urahara over to the corner. "What if Inoue-san's brother has the potential for a self-made Arrancar?"
"Arrancar?" Urahara's eyebrows rose with sudden interest. "That's an interesting term. A Hollow that tears off its own mask?"
"That's right. He's one of only two Hollows in history who may be able to become an Arrancar on his own. Otherwise, I wouldn't have agreed to this."
Tsuna was thinking of what happened in the original story: Sora had been moved by Orihime Inoue and had broken his Hollow mask of his own will. That was why Tsuna had brought him here to see Urahara.
"Only two? Then the other self-made Arrancar…"
"The strongest one in Hueco Mundo, probably. So? Interested, shopkeeper?"
"He has the potential to become a powerhouse of Hueco Mundo?" Urahara murmured to himself, then said righteously to Tsuna, "In that case, this assistance is free of charge. But the consequences of the experiment must be borne by you yourselves."
"Of course. I already warned him."
"Inoue Sora, was it? Please come with me."
Urahara tapped his cane, and a concealed space opened in the wall beside them. Tsuna and Sora followed him inside. After walking through a long, dark tunnel, they arrived in a room full of instruments.
It looked exactly like Urahara Kisuke's laboratory.
Urahara activated a machine. A huge tank lit up, and inside was a mass of white, unidentified flesh that looked very much like the material found inside a Hollow's body.
"This contains the pure body tissue of a Hollow that I extracted," Urahara said, pointing at the tank. "Go inside and touch it with your spirit body. It'll enter your soul, and then you'll begin transforming into a Hollow."
He opened a gap in the tank and allowed Sora to enter.
Sora glanced at Tsuna.
"Orihime is in your hands now, Sawada-kun."
Tsuna waved him off, refusing to play along with that tone.
"Take care of your own sister yourself. Just remember Orihime Inoue… and survive."
Sora bowed deeply to both of them, then without hesitation threw himself into the tank.
The moment he entered, the Hollow power began invading his soul. The Chain of Fate on his chest disappeared instantly, and a hole opened there.
A terrible scream rang out from inside the tank. Large quantities of white fluid surged out from the flesh and engulfed Sora completely. Twisted limbs began extending from his body.
Sora had started transforming into a Hollow.
"Tsuna-kun, you don't seem surprised by my setup at all," Urahara said casually while pressing several strange buttons.
"With how much black-tech you control, it would be stranger if you didn't have a lab of your own," Tsuna replied.
"I thought your attitude toward this kind of experiment would be more resistant."
"Well… if possible, I'd still prefer the shopkeeper's experiments to respect life a bit more."
Tsuna didn't continue that topic. Instead, he drew his Zanpakutō and spoke the release command for the Mist attribute.
A trident appeared in his hand.
He watched Sora closely inside the tank, ready to act at any moment.
"Please be careful with my equipment, Tsuna-kun," Urahara said quickly. "Don't smash it. Everything here is expensive."
"Relax. I'm not planning to attack. This is just a precaution."
Tsuna leaned the trident against a nearby platform, looking like he had no intention of wrecking the lab.
As time passed, the Hollow inside the tank gradually took shape.
Its appearance was exactly the same as Sora Inoue's Hollow form in canon: a human torso with a serpentine lower body, a mask with Sora's hairstyle behind it, and a gray-and-orange-red overall appearance.
And just like in canon, the current Sora had completely lost his rational mind. He had become a Hollow driven only by hunger, hurling himself again and again at the tank walls in Tsuna and Urahara's direction.
"Looks like it failed, Tsuna-kun," Urahara said. His tone was completely flat. Failed experiments were so common to him that he had long since passed the age of emotional reactions to them.
"No. I'm just going to add one more ingredient."
Tsuna kicked the trident up into his hand.
He had long prepared for the possibility that Sora would fail. Now it was time to bring out his backup plan.
He struck the trident hard against the ground.
Sora's world immediately changed.
This was no longer Urahara's laboratory.
Instead, it became the small home where the Inoue siblings had depended on each other.
Inside that home, Orihime Inoue stood there, looking at Sora with gentle warmth.
"Brother, you're home?"
She smiled and came over just as she used to when welcoming him home, as if she couldn't see his monstrous form at all. She even lifted her hand, preparing to take the briefcase he would normally be carrying.
In a blur, Sora then saw another version of himself—his exhausted self after a long day's work—handing over the day's burdens to Orihime and sharing little details of his life with her.
The scene was ordinary to the point of being utterly mundane.
And yet it calmed the once-frenzied Sora.
He didn't know why he had stopped moving.
He only knew that he wanted to protect this scene in silence.
Then a cold, merciless voice cut through the illusion and struck directly at Sora's mind.
"Sora Inoue! Remember! What matters to you most—Orihime Inoue!"
Under Tsuna's warning, the clouded light in Sora's eyes slowly began to clear.
He muttered to himself,
"I… am Inoue… Sora…"
The scene changed again.
A timid little girl appeared before him—that was Orihime as a child.
Then another Orihime appeared to his left, in her present form.
And to his right appeared Orihime as a high school girl.
One after another, different versions of Orihime surrounded him.
They were all Orihimes created from Tsuna's own memories—different ages, different expressions, different moods.
And from all around him came one voice after another:
"Brother."
Each time he heard it, Sora's gaze grew firmer.
At last, all of those Orihimes sank back into darkness.
One final Orihime appeared before him, dressed in pure white bridal robes.
She pointed to the ornament on her head and asked shyly,
"Brother, will you put the tsunokakushi on me?"
Crack.
A fracture opened in Sora's Hollow mask.
As more visions of Orihime's future appeared before him, the cracks spread wider and wider. When all those different Orihimes appeared together once more, Sora's mask finally shattered completely, revealing a face that looked strangely relieved.
These different visions of Orihime's life had, in effect, fulfilled the very obsession that had bound Sora at the time of his death—the desire to witness her growth.
And because that obsession had been fulfilled, he truly completed a self-made Arrancar transformation.
"How interesting," Urahara commented.
He had watched all of Tsuna's actions from beginning to end. To be honest, he had never thought it would work. And yet this Hollow had truly become an Arrancar on its own and recovered Sora Inoue's mind. His scientific curiosity was now so strong that he almost wanted to start experimenting on him immediately—though that would still depend on Tsuna's reaction.
"Congratulations, Inoue-san's brother," Tsuna said as he dismissed his Zanpakutō.
"Thank you very much, Lord Tsuna. Lord Shopkeeper."
Sora bowed deeply and respectfully. He knew full well that the only reason he was sane now was because of these two.
"It's too early for thanks," Tsuna said. "You've become a Hollow now. Even if you can keep your mind and won't disappear, with your current strength you still can't casually go see Inoue-san. And if someone notices you, you might be disposed of at any time."
"First, get stronger. Once your strength rises, you'll also be able to take on a more normal humanoid form. When that happens, meeting Inoue-san will be much easier, right?"
Tsuna painted him a nice, hopeful future.
"Then I'll be in your care, Lord Tsuna," Sora said, bowing again.
"Not me. Urahara," Tsuna corrected, then turned to Urahara. "Shopkeeper, it's fine to leave Inoue-san's brother with you, right? You've looked like your hands were itching to get started this whole time."
"Oh my, and here I thought I was hiding that very well," Urahara said. "Tsuna-kun isn't worried I might perform some strange experiments on him?"
"If possible, help Inoue-san's brother evolve toward the level of an Adjuchas first. In exchange, I think it's only fair for the shopkeeper to collect some experimental data."
Tsuna really had no particular ability when it came to Hollow evolution.
Sora displayed the same keen eye that had served him well in life as a salaryman. He immediately turned to Urahara, curling in slightly and bowing respectfully.
"Please, Lord Urahara!"
"Very well. Then let us begin an interesting experiment," Urahara said, clearly pleased behind his folding fan.
"Then I'm off, shopkeeper. Ichigo and the others have been urging me to come back."
Tsuna held up his phone. Before coming here, he had specifically texted Tatsuki and asked her to distract Orihime for a while. And now, the moment Tatsuki and Ichigo left Orihime's house, they had already started messaging him nonstop.
Urahara tapped his cane again, opening the hidden passage.
"I won't see you out, Tsuna-kun."
When Tsuna rejoined Tatsuki and Ichigo, Ichigo immediately asked,
"Tsuna, where did you go? And Inoue-san's brother—how is he?"
Even someone as simple-minded as Ichigo had realized that Tsuna disappearing like that meant Sora's fate could not have been as simple as merely being sent on.
"Wait a little longer," Tsuna said. "Once your Fullbring training shows some results, I'll take you to see him."
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