5 Muramasa's Confession.

A 360° blue wave of spiritual energy surged out of Muramasa as Koga watched on quietly. Spiritual energy flowed into the hollows bodies and soon after, their masks started to glow blue.

This was the sign of Muramasa infiltrating their 'hearts', which in a hollow's case, were their masks.

Before his evolution, Muramasa would've been hard-pressed to achieve such a feat on a Menos because inherently, they didn't have a single or twin consciousness like most zanpakuto's.

Menos were an amalgamation of thousands of wills confined into one body, which at the lowest class, was the Gillian.

Only when one will became stronger than the rest, would they be on the road of evolving into an Adjuchas.

Now, with the power of 'division' which was provided by fusing with the Yamato, Muramasa could accurately divide the wills inside the hollow, easily pinpointing which one was the strongest.

When Muramasa located that one, he easily brainwashed it into changing its allegiances, serving Muramasa and by extension Koga.

Alternatively, if he used this ability on a Gillian, he could force its evolution into an Adjuchas by selecting any random will within it and empowering it, making that will stronger than the rest.

The ability was very versatile in this regard.

For hollows though, this process was extremely painful.

Both Koga and Muramasa turned a blind ear to their wretched screams as the process went on.

Several seconds later, the blue glow on their masks faded away and the spiritual threads binding them left their bodies, releasing them from their shackles.

The surroundings suddenly became extremely quiet.

The Adjuchas stood still as if they were frozen.

The Gillian's closest to Koga stopped moving around and stayed still as if they were stuck in a trance.

Wait, why were the Gillians affected?

'Muramasa?'

Koga called out to Muramasa in his mind because this was out of left field. To his knowledge, Muramasa wasn't told to manipulate any Gillian's. Even if Koga ignored the fact that Muramasa disobeyed him, the twenty or so odd Gillian's that were affected couldn't pose any challenge for apple training.

It just seemed like a useless move all around.

'Master, do you remember when you saw me being sick a few days ago? A part of that was because of the hollows I've consumed to keep myself materialized over the centuries. While I consumed them, they consumed me. If I lost my sanity in any way, they would come to the surface and run rampant, destroying everything around me.'

Koga knew this about Muramasa already. After all, Muramasa was basically him and he was Muramasa.

It would be odd if he didn't do something this fundamental about his own self.

So what was Muramasa trying to say?

'Master, this, I'm sure you know. But, I've kept something hidden from you.'

Koga immediately stuck Muramasa into the ground and folded his arms while closing his eyes. He then sighed and said, "Go on, Muramasa."

The spirit went quiet for several seconds before he suddenly said, 'Master, when you fused those new swords into me, everything started to stabilize. My waning power came back, my sick condition started to improve, and even the deformations that occurred in my body over the centuries healed.'

Muramasa went quiet again for several seconds. Just as Koga was about to tell him to continue, the spirit said with a heavy tone, 'But, at the same time, the hollows that were within me...stabilized. They no longer tried to consume me. No, instead, we all became one. I gained their power and their curse. Their tenacity and...their endless hunger.'

Now, it was Koga's turn to stay quiet. This development was out of his expectations. How could this happen?

"Muramasa, with the power of Yamato within you, dividing them from yourself should've been easy. Did you encounter a problem?"

As if he had been expecting this response, Muramasa replied swiftly, saying, 'You're correct, Master. The problem is this. I can feel a presence within me. It's telling me to feed. It's telling me to submit to my hunger, to my most basic instincts. I can feel that if I do this, we will be able to gain unfathomable power. But, I do not know what we will become. We might become something completely unrecognizable.'

At this point, Muramasa even sounded a bit...afraid.

Muramasa had never been afraid of anything before.

He even stood fearlessly with Koga as they fought against Captain-Commander Yamamoto and Captain Ginrei Kuchiki, two of the strongest captains in Soul Society at the time.

But now, he was trembling.

This situation had been clearly taking a toll on his mental state.

Koga felt responsible for this problem as he didn't know Muramasa was going through something like this.

He couldn't even tell something was wrong.

'Master, before you make your decision, listen to this. The reason I told you this is because I want you to be the one to decide our path. Whatever you choose to do, I will follow you with all my being.'

Koga just listened quietly to everything Muramasa said with saying a word. He owed this man far too much.

"Muramasa, I-"

'Master. There's no reason to apologize. If I couldn't handle this much, how could I call myself your zanpakuto?'

Koga was about to say something but he just smiled and opened his eyes as he slowly looked up at the sand ceiling of the Forest Of Menos.

He couldn't ask for a better Zanpakuto Spirit.

"Muramasa. Remember this, I don't want you to stand below me, you must stand beside me. You are not just a tool, you are my Zanpakuto, a part of me that I will never abandon. You are not just a servant, you are my brother. If I break this oath, then the Soul King shall strike me down himself."

Muramasa forcefully materialized himself and appeared in front of Koga with a shocked expression on his face.

"Master-"

"Call me Koga, brother."

Muramasa was struck speechless once again.

To him, this part of Koga was one that he had never seen before.

But it was something that he had always dreamt about.

'It seems that during his time in the seal, Koga had truly changed.'

Muramasa slowly outstretched his hand and said as his fears quickly left him, "Master, no, Koga. Thank you. I will keep those words engraved in my mind forever."

For the first time in centuries, Muramasa had genuinely smiled.

His master had acknowledged his efforts and called him a brother, what more could he ask for?

Koga met his hand with his own and shook it tightly, saying with a laugh, "Don't mention it, Muramasa. This is the least I can do. And...I'm guessing you already know what my decision is."

Muramasa let go of Koga's hands and outstretched one of his palms towards the group of Gillian's, consuming them without remorse.

"Of course, if I didn't, how could you call me your brother?"

In an instant, a white substance started forming over Muramasa's face, taking the shape of a small horn. This seemed to be the first stage of a hollow mask.

But, Muramasa looked completely unperturbed. It was as if nothing was happening to him.

Before, Koga had assumed that Muramasa was afraid of the hollow within him, but little did he know that Muramasa had never batted an eye at its taunts.

What he was truly afraid of, was Koga abandoning him once again after finding out he was 'tainted' by a hollow.

He was afraid that Koga would once again think he was cursed.

Now that Koga had completely accepted him, not only through a soul link, but a verbal acknowledgment, those fears were gone with the wind.

Even the sky could fall and Muramasa would stand firm with Koga at his side.

Muramasa turned to the Adjuchas and consumed three of them, leaving two of them alive.

Two of them were enough for Koga to train with for now.

Muramasa then went back into the sword and said, 'Mas-...Koga, let's head back to the cave. This power will...change us and it will take some time for us to get used to it. Now that I've released it completely, who knows what will happen?'

Koga immediately agreed and said to the two Adjuchas, "Guard this cave and send any strong hollows that approach inside. Make sure they're close to death. Affirmi-"

Koga suddenly smiled and thought to himself, 'Heh, I forgot I'm not in the military anymore.'

He then continued, "Understand?"

The muscular green screecher Adjuchas from before, opened its mouth as it struggled to talk, saying, "We...under...stand...mas...ter..."

And with that, Koga disappeared.

[Several Months Later.]