To Build an Army (solo)

Ryouta's trip to Hueco Mundo had been extremely fruitful, to say the least. He had quite accidentally stumbled upon information that would allow him to amass an army that would not only be easily controlled by him, but also have none of the weaknesses of organic matter. Indeed, his meeting with the mechanical Hollow had been fortuitous, and he hadn't even had to dismantle it to figure out its genesis had occurred - it had simply told him how it came into being when asked. Now, Ryouta was hidden away in his secret laboratory, drawing up prototypes for his eventual army of mechanical Hollows. The combat and personality protocols were easy - all he had to do was make minor modifications to existing Mod Soul programs. These would then be downloaded into the mechanical bodies Ryouta created, and then given spiritual pressure by the method the mechanical Hollow had described.

Already Ryouta had drawn up several blueprints of what he envisioned. At first, he had thought to simply copy successful Hollow forms that already existed, but had dispensed with that idea. Shinigami were accustomed to fighting Hollows. He decided that his mechanical shock troops would be more humanoid in appearance. Of course, the mechanical Hollow was still in a way an organic being in that it had mechanical versions of the organs Hollows had, especially the digestive tract. Ryouta wanted something that was versatile and formidable in combat, but also had humanoid enough physical and personality features that Shinigami fighting these troops would feel as if they were fighting sentient beings. The eyes - that was the key, Ryouta felt. "The eyes are the keys to the soul," he muttered. They would have to have realistic eyes; in fact, he would just make their faces as humanoid as possible. But then where would he put their Hollow mouths?

Ryouta smiled at the thought - he would put them in their chests, right where the heart would be, so that if a Shinigami stabbed a robot there, they would find a bloody maw waiting to devour the questing arm, blade and all. He would give each robot versions of his own mechanical arm and eye, both capable of storing and releasing powerful bursts of reiatsu. In addition, each robot would be outfitted for melee combat as well. Ryouta had already decided that his robots would be made of exactly the same metal as he used for his own appendages - these would be quality troops, not just fodder for the Shinigami to tear down.

They would be quick and agile warriors, similar to the Onmitsukido. After all, Ryouta had been Vice-Captain of the 2nd Division, he knew their strategy best. In fact...each of his robots would probably be tactically superior to your average 11th Division member. Ryouta pictured Kaiyo's face after stumbling upon her squad members, slaughtered by his specially made troops. To his surprise, he found himself grinning sadistically at the thought - taking pleasure in the pain and rage she would feel. With these troops, he would destroy everything and everyone he had ever known, everything that he had ever loved. And yet...the thought did not disturb him. He felt no shame, no remorse, no pity for his future victims. Only satisfaction in a lofty goal that had a very real chance of occurring.

Finally finished drawing the blueprint, Ryouta looked at it with an evil smile on his face. It was the ideal Shinigami killing machine. He had outfitted them with blades that would come from their arms and shoulders, as well as kneecaps and toes, and his own mechanical arm cannon and eyes, with some minor modifications. But in addition to that, their Hollow mouths were hidden by a breastplate that could open and close in a swirling pattern over the left pectoral area. Each would have advanced joints and "musculature" that would allow them to run as fast as Shinigami and jump as high as Shinigami, strike with as much force as Shinigami while tiring only a fraction of what a Shinigami would. Yes...that combined with their humanoid appearance "shock factor," - Soul Society had better watch out.

Robot General Appearance:

Spoiler:

Robot Facial Appearance:

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To be Continued...
Total Word Count: 692

The next step in his plan to amass an army was to mass produce these mechanical monstrosities. Ordinarily that would be easy enough, but since the Gotei hadn't actually approved these things he would be creating, well, he'd have to find alternate means besides the 12th Division's vast sources of production. Actually, now that he thought about it, Ryouta was getting ahead of himself. He hadn't even tested the procedure. Mass production would be the last part of his plan - for now, he needed to create a prototype, ensure that what the mechanical Hollow had told him was true.

So for now, he would focus on creating one. The first thing he would work on was the head, where most of the higher-order functions of the Hollowbot would go, i.e. tactical reasoning, personality, etc. He would put the functions responsible for combat and movement elsewhere, perhaps in the abdominal region. That way, even if the head was destroyed, the Hollowbot would still be able to kill things - though it would be uncontrollable, just like your average run-of-the-mill Hollow.

Anyway, Ryouta had selected a molybdenum steel alloy to use for his creations, with rivets made of a nickel-silver alloy. It was the type of material that the humans used for space shuttles, and so very durable. Ryouta doubted that the run-of-the-mill Shinigami would even be able to dent this stuff. Of course, the true power of each of his bots would come from the souls it consumed at creation and afterward.

The first thing Ryouta did was mold the shape of the skull. That was where all the wiring for those functions would go - its primary function was of course to protect that wiring. That being done, Ryouta then added a multitude of tiny joints and gears to be connected to the power source (which would be fueled by the Hollowbots spiritual presence, as his own mechanical arm and eye were). These joints and gears were placed at strategic locations that would actually allow the Hollowbot to mimic human facial expressions. Actually, Ryouta thought he might stretch the sort of silicon used in human movies over the skull so as to give it even more of a human appearance. He shunted the thought aside for the moment though - he would have time later to polish. In addition to that, Ryouta put holographic projectors and short reel cameras in the eye sockets. These would serve dual functions; first, the holographic projectors would give the impression that these bots had actual organic eyes, and second, would allow them to play back things they had recorded. In reality, each bot only had need of one mechanical eye, as each eye had two pupils, thereby allowing depth perception. A second eye would be redundant.

Finally finished with the head, Ryouta got to work on the rest of the body. The arms and legs were easy - they were just minor modifications to the mechanical arm he had crafted for himself. It was the torso that was more complex and required more thought. Ryouta placed an opening over the left pectoral side, into which he placed a series of rotating saws that would serve as Hollow jaws. In the torso itself he placed all of the functions of an organic body - tubing for a gastrointestinal system, for a cardiovascular system, etc. Everything a normal Hollow would have. As planned, he placed the wiring for combat and movement functions in the abdomen. Finally, he connected all the wiring and attached the Hollowbot's various parts together, leaving no wiring showing.

Actually, considering that it was just modified Mod Soul programming he was using to keep the Hollowbots loyal to only him, Ryouta could technically power this creation up and it would function as an android. But that just wouldn't cut it. His next step was to find some humans to sacrifice for his being.

To Be Continued...
Total Word Count: 1343

Now that the body of the Hollowbot prototype was complete, the last remaining step was to give it spiritual awareness. According to the Hollow, that required human sacrifice, something Ryouta was not above doing to further his own ends. Before he left, he had a stroke of inspiration - he added a blast shield to the Hollowbot's head so that its one eye could be protected in battle situations. Since the eye was equipped with x-ray and infrared capabilities, it would not hinder its ability to see.

That quick adjustment being made, and all necessary programming uploaded into the Hollowbot, Ryouta grabbed a special battery he had made just for his prototype, tucked the bot under his arm, and pulled down his Hollow mask. Then, he opened up a Garganta to the Real World.

The Garganta opened on the outskirts of a small village in the Himalaya mountains. It was tucked far away from civilization, unknown to most of the world. It was a perfect place to steal human life from without notice. Ryouta removed his Hollow mask, and then stood his Hollowbot in an upright position. With a grin on his face, he shoved the fully charged battery into the appropriate slot in the Hollowbot's torso.

Almost instantly, the Hollowbot's eye glowed dull red as it came awake. It looked to either side quickly. "You are the master," it said in a toneless voice. "You are the Creator. What is your command?"

Ryouta smiled and said in a cold voice, "Kill every human in that village, and consume each and every one of their spirits. You are to exercise no mercy. Not even for women and children. Understood?"

"Affirmative." The Hollowbot displayed no trace of emotion as it ran into the soon to be empty village.

Soon, screams began to come from the village. With his mechanical eye, Ryouta watched impassively as his Hollowbot stained itself red with blood as it rampaged through the village. He made a mental note to remember to tell it to kill discretely next time. It was fine that there was noise now, but when he needed to mass produce these things, it would be better if the human deaths were as silent as possible.

A half hour later, the Hollowbot returned to Ryouta, looking as if it had bathed in blood. "The human village has been emptied of its inhabitants, master. None survived."

Ryouta nodded, he had expected that. Suddenly, he reached out and yanked the battery from the Hollowbot. It remained active, now being fueled by the souls it had consumed. "Report: anything strange? Specifically, with your well-being?"

"Pardon, I mean no disrespect toward my design, but...I feel as if I have gained awareness beyond the power source and my programming. You are clearer to me now."

Ryouta smiled. "Excellent." He pulled his mask down again and opened another Garganta. "Come with me."

The Garganta opened back in his lab. Waiting there was a Hollow that Ryouta had captured from the Menos forest earlier, restrained by a kido spell. "My command is that you allow yourself to be consumed by that Hollow," Ryouta said.

"As you wish," said the Hollowbot.

Ryouta snapped his fingers, and the Hollow bounded forth and swallowed the Hollowbot whole. Then, it bucked wildly and spat out the metal frame more or less undamaged. Ryouta could no longer sense the presence of Pluses within the frame. If what the Hollow had told him was true, the transformation to Hollowdom was coming soon.

He wasn't disappointed. The metal frame bucked and suddenly jumped to its feet. Confused, the Hollow roared at what it had thought was dead. The Hollowbot responded by blasting its left arm off. The Hollow reeled back in pain; without missing a beat, the Hollowbot then jumped forward and allowed the mouth in its chest to devour the Hollow completely.

That done, it turned and looked at Ryouta. "I recognize you. You are the creator. My instinct is to obey you. What is your will?"

So the programming did work. Wonderful. "Tell me your name."

"Designation: S.H.O.C.K.E.R - Sentient Humanoid Optimized for Calculated Killing and Efficient Reconnaissance."

"Excellent. Well you are the prototype," said Ryouta. "So your designation number will be 1." He pulled out an etcher and etched the number one over S.H.O.C.K.E.R's right pectoral.

To Be Continued...
Total Word Count: 2063

Now that Ryouta had established that the procedure that the Hollow had outlined for him was correct, all he needed to do was mass-produce the Hollowbot chassis and then fit them all with spiritual presence by feeding each one some human souls. Then, he could just dump them in the Menos forest for a while, and voila, he'd have his own personal Hollowbot army...ish. Mass-producing the Hollowbots wasn't an issue, all he had to do was modify some of the equipment in one of the 12th Division's factories for creating Mod Souls and ban anyone else access to it. Still, he had to be careful about using his resources, lest he rouse suspicion. Thankfully, being a particularly frugal individual, he was able to use his savings to add to the materials he could already use safely. All in all, he'd be able to create a battalion of Hollowbots, 1300 total to be specific.

Compared to Soul Society's standing forces of 3000, the odds seemed stacked against him. But Ryouta was confident that his Hollowbots were more than a match for the average Shinigami. He was only going to use them to sow havoc among the general populace anyway, not use them to assassinate higher ranking Shinigami.

Creating the Hollowbots' physical form was the easy part, as was uploading their personalities. Now, Ryouta had to figure out how he was going to sacrifice the large number of humans necessary to fuel his battalion without being noticed. It was a problem that had been annoying him for some time now, and he had been wracking his brain for answers. Finally, he settled on the answer that seemed to him most likely to succeed. All he had to do was drop off his Hollowbots in portions of the world where the death rates were high. Most of these places would be in developing countries, but he'd mix it up a little by sending a few Hollowbots into cities with high crime rates.

...

Now Ryouta stood in his secret lab, having transported his entire battalion of Hollowbots down here. "Listen to me, all of you. I am going to transport you in groups to various parts of the Real World. Upon arrival, each of you will kill 100 humans and absorb their souls as your own. When you have done so, you will report back to where I dropped you off, where I will bring you back here. You are to avoid all contact with Shinigami. Avoid being seen - make sure there are no witnesses. Be discrete. Understood?"

"AFFIRMATIVE." 1300 robotic voices said as one.

"Excellent," Ryouta responded. "Then off we go." He pulled his Hollow mask down and began transporting his troops via Garganta in squads of 100 to various places in the Real World, such as the Congo, Nigeria, Brazil, New York City, etc.; places where natural disasters had occurred, where wars were ongoing, where people lived each day in fear of their lives being taken.

His Hollowbots swooped into their destinations like wraiths in the night - approximately 2 hours after each drop-off time, each Hollowbot had completed its task, and was now glowing with Plus spiritual energy. Ryouta hustled them back to his lab as quickly as he could, where he gave them a second order.

"I will now transport you all to the Menos Forest. You will allow yourselves to be consumed by the Hollows there. Once you take on Hollow characteristics, use the Garganta ability to come back. Understood?"

"AFFIRMATIVE."

An hour later, and a battalion of Hollowbots stood before Ryouta in all their unholy glory, loyal only to him and his cause. He relished the chance to release them on an unsuspecting Soul Society soon.

Complete
Total word count: 2683