"...I am not touching that thing till you tell me that it didn't come out of your ass."
"It did not but you are not touching it anyway, considering the sheer clusterfuck we had to deal with in Soul Society due to the plans you made involving this over glorified jawbreaker." I deadpanned as I spun Hougyoku between my fingers.
"Ok, no." Yoruichi said with a glare that would have been far more intimidating if she wasn't currently a cat. "You can't just pull that thing out of nowhere and act like that! Didn't you eat that damn things?!"
"Yoruichi, please." I rolled my eyes at her. "Do I really look dumb enough to eat something this dangerous."
"I believe the thought of making fun of people could possibly overpower your sense of survival." Aura said with a tilt of her head, which was far nicer than Yoruichi's glare that was screaming 'YES!'.
"Well, it didn't and I didn't eat the stupid rock." I said with a sigh. "I can store things in my shadow, I simply put it in there when it was close to my mouth and enveloped by the shadow of my hand. Nothing too fancy."
"That wouldn't have been enough." Yoruichi said with a glare that was more confused than angry. "Byakuya would have said something if you just gulped down air, and that's not mentioning Aizen."
"I know. That's why I didn't just gulp down air." I said, already feeling green as I remembered what I did.
Seeing that none of the people around me, except for Aura, was satisfied with that simple explanation; I sighed and made a cup with my hand, causing there to be a shadow in it and brought forth a small hollow that looked like a bug.
"Everyone, meet Spherey. My assistant in the small illusion show that fooled everyone around us when I 'ate' Hougyoku." The tiny hollow raised its spindly legs like it was greeting a conference room, it clicked proudly; wings buzzing with smugness I didn't even know a bug could have, let alone one who basically had it's individuality destroyed when I had squashed it under my foot and added to my horde.
"...you ate that thing?" Urahara asked and for once there was no trace of smugness in his tone, only horrified wonder.
"Desperate times, desperate choices." I said with a shudder, trying to ignore Yoruichi's laughter. "But my very uncomfortable decisions is not what I want to talk about. There is something I need your help with." I said as I looked to Urahara, who regained his smug smile.
----------------
"Just so you know, this is likely a terrible idea."
"I know." I said with a roll of my eyes. "But we kind of need the extra firepower and can't really be picky about it."
"We do not even know whether your hollows are eligible for this process." Urahara said with a frown as he looked down at Hougyoku. "I know far too little of them since you did not let me experiment on any of them..."
"And I still won't."
"...but my current hypothesis is that they are not truly Hollows but instead energy constructs made out of spiritual energy with Hollow-like qualities."
"Isn't that basically what a Hollow is?" Yoruichi asked, in her human form, as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"No," Urahara went on, wagging a finger. "A Hollow's existence is layered. There is the soul itself, the ego, the chain of fate's remnants, instinctual identifiers, purged memories, trauma residues, the mask's formation, the corruption process..."
Yoruichi sighed. "And here we go."
"...and then the spiritual body structure," he finished smugly, tilting his head at her in triumph. "While his creatures..." he jabbed a thumb at me, "...are shortcuts. Artificial. More like... solidified commands wrapped in a spiritual membrane."
Aura nodded. "They are echoes given purpose."
"Exactly!" Urahara clapped once. "Echoes! Not souls. No true core. No emotional nucleus. They mimic Hollow traits but do not possess the actual metaphysical composition. They are basically just shells, meaning that the Hougyoku can not mend the bridge between a Hollow and Shinigami for them. Cause they are not either of those things!"
"There might be an exception." I said and the shadow beneath my feet surged upwards as Rika manifested herself.
"C-Cain!" And immediately got everyone's attention as she said my name.
"...did that thing just talk?"
"She did, yes." I glared at Urahara before sighing. "I am not sure what exactly her deal is. Rika always felt... greater than the other Hollows in my shadow but after I had her eat that lime haired bitch Tokinada..."
"You did what?"
"...she has been able to talk." I said with a frown. "Though she has yet to say anything more than my name."
Urahara stared at Rika as if she were a cursed object that had just recited tax law.
"She said your name," he repeated slowly. "With actual vocalization. With syntax. That means..."
"That she's built different?" I offered.
"That she's terrifying." Yoruichi corrected.
"...that she has something comparable to sentience, which means that she has something comparable to a core." Urahara said. "If so, Hougyoku might actually work on her."
Rika tilted her masked head at Urahara, letting out a glitchy, warbling trill that was probably meant to sound curious but instead sounded like a modem being strangled.
Urahara did not appreciate it. Instead he took two steps back and held his fan defensively.
"A-ah. Yes. Fascinating. Wonderful. Please stop looking at me like you're deciding which organ to start with."
Rika immediately turned her face toward him, mask splitting slightly as if to smile.
Urahara squeaked.
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