A week had passed since the events with Aedric and his arrancar. Many shinigami had perished in the war, but Soul Society was slowly, but surely, returning to normal. Since those events, hollow attacks on the human world had dropped slightly, as if to compensate for the shinigami who had died. As for the mysterious figure who appeared to save them at the end, no one, save Yamamoto knew who he was. For quite some time, he even refused to speak of this person with the other captains. Shutting himself up in his quarters to reflect, he understood that he had to get to the bottom of this.
"...And that's why I called, " Yamamoto spoke to the screen. On it was Urahara, who wanted to report to him as well.
"I see...so it may not have been quite a conscience after all," Urahara trailed off.
"What do you mean?"
"You may have heard this before from the others, but one of the arrancar serving under Aedric was named Jaku Weiss. Does that name ring any bells?"
"Jaku...No, I have never heard that name before. You think he may be related to Merrem Weiss?"
"I felt that the name was too similar so I had a look into the database just to confirm it."
"...Those records are highly confidential and only a few have security access to view them. How did you-"
"Haha, well, I have my ways," Urahara laughed, making light of the situation. However, his gaze quickly shifted back into being serious as he continued, "On Merrem's final report, before he vanished, it mentioned something about 'I have to be the one to stop him. Jaku is my responsibility.' Something must've happened back them and those two are linked together. Also, I confirmed with Kurosaki Ichigo that the arrancar he fought against called herself Faedyn Quartz. She claimed that she was a vasto lorde as well."
"...What could this mean?" Yamamoto asked aloud. All this new information was making no sense to him. Merrem was alive, Jaku was related to him somehow and Faedyn, Merrem's own lieutenant, claimed that she was a vasto lorde.
"There's one more thing," Urahara added as Yamamoto was deep in thought, "It might just be a gut feeling of mine but regarding Jaku Weiss...I'm not sure if he's dead or not..."
"What makes you say that?"
"Unlike the other arrancar, his sigil activated before his body vanished. With his power, it would be easy to fake his death. I think-Who's there?" Urahara yelled out as he spun around. A figure suddenly shot away from his store and into the night. At that moment, Urahara knew that his theory was correct, Jaku was alive. Further more, he listened to their entire conversation. But what freaked him out even more so was the thought that Jaku let himself be found out. How long had he been spying on him...
"Head-captain! If possible, I request that we have more security watching Karakura for a while."
"Agreed, I'll send some agents over right away. We must capture Jaku Weiss at all costs and find out what he knows."
"Awwww...They figured it out." Jaku pouted as he dragged himself out of a sewage drain. He had been stuck down there for over a week spying on the shinigami stationed in Karakura.
"Well, if that's the case, I might as well head back. Aedric-kun may have failed but I've got other potential candidates for king. Even if he was the best one I had..." he trailed off. Taking a deep breath Jaku cut open a portal to Hueco Mundo and took a glance backwards.
"I'll leave it to you guys to throw the others off. I have to plan this next one out carefully if we want to take out Merrem."
""Aye aye, sir"" Four other Jaku's saluted as they ran off in other directions. The real Jaku let loose a sinister grin as he headed into the portal, ready for the next step in his plan.