Chapter 271: Simulated Universe·Universal Locust Plague (VI)

Xing stood outside the window, lightly tapping his knuckles on the glass, trying to get the woman's attention.

"The transport ship is not far from here..." Xing's voice was soft, as if afraid to disturb her.

The woman jerked her head up, revealing a pair of bloodshot eyes through her messy hair. Her fingers were wrapped in rough thread, and dozens of tiny cloth shoes lay scattered at her feet—some only half-stitched, some already worn at the edges, piled haphazardly on the floor.

"Get lost!" the woman screamed, grabbing an unfinished shoe and hurling it at the window, "You liars! Thieves! I heard my children's voices!... I will wait for them to come back!"

Xing's gaze swept the room; the walls were hung with all kinds of clothing. In the corner, a tattered stuffed bear sat slumped, its belly sewn with crooked patches, threads dragging on the floor, blackened where the woman's bare feet had stepped on it.

"According to the scant textual records left on Dala Bo'er Star, this woman's name is Meiershiezi," Heita said calmly. "All the children she bore were without exception insects, so... she went mad."

After the advent of Propagation, there are many like her. The Propagation of all living things is governed by Taizhiz Yiluos... to be precise, it is He who governs the concept of Propagation. Based on our current understanding of Star Gods, this is probably only a small manifestation of His authority.

"Does He know what He is doing?"

"Are you referring to the Insect King?" Heita said. "If you mean whether He possesses personified thought... that cannot be determined. Perhaps for Him, the only thought is to never stop propagating."

Xing saw Meiershiezi sitting beside the empty cradle when suddenly a worm burrowed in through her broken window, gnawing at the little food left in the room.

Meiershiezi trembled as she embraced it, for a moment believing her child had returned, tears streaming down. She gently stroked its smooth carapace, as if caressing her child's spine.

She sewed clothes for it, wrapping scrap cloth around its body; she made cloth shoes for it, stubbornly slipping them onto its hairy legs; at night she taught it language, urging it to call her "Mother," but the only response was the rustle of its arthropoid joints.

Seven days later, her home was overrun with the offspring of her "children." They gnawed curtains, hollowed out floors, leaving winding holes in the walls. Meiershiezi sat amid the sea of worms, still stitching tiny shoes one stitch at a time, while the worm swarm crawled over her, none pausing for her.

——

Death God.

In the backyard of the Urahara Shop, night lay heavy.

Urahara Kisuke leaned against the doorframe, his folding fan tapping his palm intermittently, his eyes fixed on the mad woman sitting among the worm swarm in the sky; when he saw a worm crawl onto her cheek, Urahara felt a sudden chill, and his fan reflexively slapped his face.

"What's wrong? Afraid there's a worm on your face?" Yoruichi Shihoin stepped out of the shadows, her golden cat eyes narrowing slightly, "It's rare to see you make such an expression."

"Facing the sky‑blanketing worm tide, being afraid is normal, right?" Urahara put away his fan, "The power of the Star Gods... is utterly unreasonable, like establishing some impractical rule and then forcing all things in the universe to obey it."

"All I can say is... fortunately Propagation disappeared early enough, otherwise we wouldn't have escaped either."

"Hmph, you think it's over just like that? You forgot how we just swallowed a whole train set into the belly of a Giant True Hibernating Insect not long ago?" Yoruichi crossed her arms, smirking, "Those worms that invaded the train cars immediately began laying eggs, and they possess the ability to 'replicate.' If it weren't for Xing and them killing them at a pace matching their replication speed, the train would have long been packed full of worms."

"Yoruichi, you mean... the power of Propagation still exists in the universe?"

"Well, the disappearance of Star Gods doesn't mean all worm swarms are gone. Look at the egg‑laying and breeding speed of those True Hibernating Insects... that is enough to become an unstoppable menace to the universe."

As they spoke, Yoruichi clicked her tongue in annoyance, "Thanks to these worms, I now find even Hollows rather pleasant—at least some Hollows retain reason and purpose, whereas these worms... they know only mindless consumption and reproduction, without end."

Urahara fell silent for a moment, then chuckled, "Well, Yoruichi, if that swarm of worms comes rushing in, do you think the World of the Living and Soul Society can hold them off?"

"……"

Yoruichi rolled her eyes at him, "How would I know whether we can stop them? But if those worms really show up at your door, you'll surely be the first to dive into your underground lab and tinker with some crazy inventions."

Urahara Kisuke exaggeratedly clutched his chest, putting on a wounded expression: "Oh dear, Miss Yoruichi, those words really pierce my heart—I'm obviously the type who would rush to the front lines at a moment's notice to protect everyone~"

"Oh? Is that so?" Yoruichi raised an eyebrow, looking at him with a half‑smile, "Then who was hiding in the shop eating watermelon and watching a play during the last Hollow attack on Karakura Town, calling it 'observing the battle situation'?"

"Well, that was strategic observation!" Urahara coughed twice, his fan snapping open to cover half his face, revealing only a pair of smiling eyes, "Besides, I did step in at the end, didn't I?"

"Hmph." Yoruichi was about to jab Urahara with a couple more remarks when her pupils suddenly contracted.

At first it was fine specks—myriad vibrating worm shadows trembled in the Milky Way, like a painter's twisted star‑sky suddenly coming to life. Then the whole picture began to be erased by some invisible eraser, fading from the edges outward to reveal the canvas's original pallor.

In the blink of an eye, the worm swarm seemed to be violently wiped away.

"... What is that?" Yoruichi's voice rarely carried a tremor.

But Urahara Kisuke couldn't answer her; his fan clattered to the floor, cold sweat sliding down his forehead.

He keenly realized... not only Propagation, but something beyond their comprehension—a "thing"—had appeared in the light curtain.

Without sound, without light, yet both seemed to hear the lament of countless star systems. Worm swarms, planets, stars... everything fell into nothingness in that dark maw.

——

"【Gluttony】—Ouroboros." Heita explained, "Gluttony is a Star God ascended from the Twilight Ancient Beast, both ancient beast and Star God, an endless devourer and a thinking void. He and Klepper of 【Preservation】 are tied as the oldest known Star Gods."

"'That I just... was eaten by Him?' Xing remembered that just a moment ago they were still at the crazy woman's place."

"'Mm, every time Gluttony opens its mouth, billions of stars vanish just like that—of course, the same number of countless offspring of Taiziyuluosuo also perish; one propagates, the other devours, hearing it sounds like a pair of enemies, while carrying out each other's destinies, they also bring a catastrophe that overturns the universe.'"