Sora was seen puking his guts out—so much damn blood.
Damn, this was so bad.
The things he did for his father figure... Truly, if he didn't have respect for the Soul King, he wouldn't force himself to do this.
"...'Let's be friends,' he said, yet he had this evil look on his face."
Yhwach, across from him, looked like someone had force-fed him a gallon of lemon juice and then told him it was his birthday.
Neither of them were happy.
Adyneus, standing between them, wore the most fatherly expression possible for a cosmic deity who may or may not have rewritten the nature of spiritual reality at least five times before breakfast.
When your second son wants to kill your first son, there is a lot of work that needs to be done.
"Now then," he said warmly, as if the previous scene of soul-destroying tension hadn't happened, "I would like the two of you to reconcile. Shake hands."
Sora blinked. "...You want me to what now?"
Yhwach tilted his head like a broken marionette. "Reconcile?"
"Yes," Adyneus said, too calmly. "As brothers. That's what you are."
"BROTHERS?!" Sora pointed at Yhwach like he was pointing at mold in the fridge. "I am not related to this Hitler wannabe."
Yhwach pointed right back. "I refuse to accept that this cosmic biohazard is my kin."
"Well, fuck you too," Sora said, clearly still pissed. The fuck you mean friendship with Yhwach? He would rather die.
Adyneus sighed the sigh of someone who had raised two demigods—well, technically not really. He was with Yhwach for a couple thousand years or so, but with Sora? Hm, didn't have that much time.
Still.
"Boys."
They shut up. Reflexively.
"You don't have to like each other," he said. "But the Beast is stirring. The era of gods, Reapers, and Quincy will collapse if you two keep dragging your blood feud into every timeline."
Then came the dad voice.
"Sora. Yhwach. Shake hands. Now."
The weight of authority in his voice made the palace creak. Literal divine pressure pressed down on their spines.
Sora twitched.
Yhwach's eye visibly ticked.
And then—with all the grace of two toddlers being forced to apologize after breaking a vase—they stepped forward.
Sora stuck out his hand like it was a live grenade.
Yhwach grabbed it like it was a corpse.
Their fake-ass smiles could've shattered glass. The tension could've killed small birds.
"Brother," Yhwach said through gritted teeth.
"Buddy," Sora replied with a twitching eyelid.
They shook.
Somewhere in the Reishi air, lightning sparked from the friction of petty, unholy hatred.
If a butterfly had flapped its wings wrong, this handshake would've triggered a nuclear war.
"Wonderful!" Adyneus clapped.
Both of them flinched.
"See? That wasn't so bad!"
Sora turned to the side and gagged. "...My soul threw up a little."
Yhwach wiped his palm on his cloak like he'd just touched something slimy. "I feel infected."
Adyneus sighed. "Progress."
Sora raised a finger. "This means nothing."
"Oh, I know," Adyneus replied, smiling. "But I'll sleep easier knowing I at least tried."
Wow. He was really trying that shit.
"Sora, can you not resurrect your mother..."
Sora pondered on it for a bit. Well, duh. He could do that. He wasn't used to his power yet—like, come on, he doesn't think of everything. A good example would be the readers of this story.
While yes, they had access to the internet, they in fact did not know everything out there. So it was like that—he had the means to access the information, but if he himself didn't look for it, he wouldn't get it.
Speaking of which, he needed to fix that. By the time he had to fight the big guy, for the most part, it should be fixed. He'd have a whole Alexa in his mind reminding him of his countless—and he does mean countless—reality-busting powers.
Shit was OP, and he loved it. He basically had every power introduced in Bleach... and then some more on top of that. To be more precise, he was like Reinhard from Re:Zero. If you know, you know. If not... well, suck it.
So bringing back his mom shouldn't be too bad. Yet at the same time...
"...I mean, yeah. I can," Sora admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "I got, like, half the spiritual coding of the universe in my pinky right now. So... duh."
He paused.
Brows furrowed.
"But like—" He gestured vaguely at the air. "—I'm not used to my powers yet, okay? It's like... having the entire internet in your brain but no idea what to Google."
Yhwach snorted. "A convenient excuse."
Sora didn't even look at him.
"Shut up, off-brand Gandalf."
Yhwach bristled, but Adyneus raised a hand before things exploded again.
Sora kept talking, mostly to himself.
"Seriously though... when I bring her back, my Almighty's gonna go off the second she blinks, and I'll see everything."
He turned green.
"Everything."
Adyneus tilted his head. "And that is a problem... because?"
Sora didn't answer.
Instead, he gave a haunted, thousand-yard stare and then muttered:
"I don't wanna see my mom get smashed."
Yhwach looked deeply confused. "...Smashed?"
"Yes." Sora pointed an accusatory finger at the ceiling like it had wronged him personally. "You know. Smashed. As in Ryuken + lovemaking = trauma."
Adyneus raised one eyebrow.
"...You're saying your only obstacle to reviving your mother is..."
Sora pointed at his temple.
"Future trauma."
Yhwach finally snapped.
"You mean to tell me you have the power to bend life and death, undo cosmic laws, and reconstruct entire souls from scratch... and you're still mad at me? You're the child here!"
"Yes... and I am a minor. You tried to genocide every other species and cried about daddy not loving you."
"What's your excuse?"
Yhwach opened his mouth—only for Adyneus to raise his voice.
"SORA."
The ground stilled. The pressure snapped back into place.
Sora clicked his tongue and backed off, hands raised like I ain't do nothin' yet.
"...Wasn't gonna kill him," he muttered. "Was just gonna punch him into a different religion."
Adyneus sighed.
Again.
This was sigh number 34 today.
He turned to Yhwach. "Please understand—he's stronger than you."
Yhwach scowled.
"I know."
"Then stop provoking him," Adyneus replied dryly. "This is like poking a black hole and calling it fat."
Sora crossed his arms. "I am the strongest. What the hell he finna do about it? Sue me?"
Yhwach seethed.
Adyneus gave Sora a look only a father figure could manage—a mix of tired, disappointed, amused, and slightly impressed that his son hadn't destroyed space yet.
"Just... don't traumatize yourself with your mom's romantic past. Use your power wisely."
"Fine," Sora groaned, flopping down into a throne made of Reishi like a moody demigod teen. "I'll set an Almighty filter. Block out any... bedroom energy."
Yhwach muttered under his breath, "You're an embarrassment to Quincy..."
"If you went 0–2 against Shinigami say 'Hi.'"
"Hi..." Yhwach's brow furrowed. He didn't say that. He looked at Sora, who just grinned evilly.