"I didn't actually win… If you released your Bankai right now, I'd die here instantly."
Kenpachi Kuruyashiki looked at his predecessor. The invincible Kenpachi Kuruyashiki furrowed his brows.
"Sorry, Azashiro! I apologize for not letting you see me go all out!"
"But you see… I absolutely cannot release my Bankai here. If I'm the only one who dies, and you're still alive, the Gotei 13 won't suffer much loss. But if I use my Bankai here, then the Gotei 13 would instantly lose three captains at once! The Head-Captain would revive me only to kill me a hundred times over…"
Blood was still pouring from Kenpachi Kuruyashiki chest, but he didn't care. He cracked a dark joke, trying to lighten the heavy mood.
"…"
"Azashiro! I'm entrusting Squad 11 to you, and also my lieutenant… that kid's in your care too!"
Kenpachi Kuruyashiki paused for a moment before continuing.
"I understand…"
Sōya Azashiro—no, before Kenpachi Kuruyashiki, he was simply Azashiro, a man who had failed to win. This fight… he didn't want to admit it as his victory. As a man with a criminal past, the only way to become a captain of the Soul Society was to challenge and defeat the captain of Squad 11. Unfortunately for him, the current captain was the once-in-a-millennium prodigy, Kenpachi Kuruyashiki.
Looking at Kenpachi Kuruyashiki before him, Azashiro felt a deep sense of ill timing. They should have met at a different time… perhaps if Kenpachi Kuruyashiki had been promoted to the Royal Guard a few years earlier, this tragedy wouldn't have happened.
"Listen, Azashiro—Kenpachi Challenges are sacred. You must do what I couldn't. Never hold back in a Kenpachi Challenge!"
Kenpachi Kuruyashiki gently patted Sōya Azashiro shoulder, then turned to walk toward Kyōraku Shunsui.
"Sorry, Head-Captain—guess I'll trouble you to report this for me… I probably won't make it there alive."
Kuryashiki smiled apologetically at Kyōraku. The extermination of the Menos could now only be reported to the Head-Captain by Kyōraku and Unohana. It was regrettable, but the truth was… he was about to die.
"Leave it to us."
Kyōraku and Unohana exchanged a glance, giving a slight nod to reassure him.
"Captain…"
The Squad 11 members looked at Kenpachi Kuruyashiki with deep reluctance. Their captain was invincible—how could this be happening? They couldn't understand…
"Hahaha… All of you, smile! Your new captain is the man who defeated me—which means he's even stronger! What more could you want? Squad 11 members bleed, but never shed tears!"
Even at the very end, Kenpachi Kuruyashiki was still teaching his men.
"Yes, Captain!"
"We'll smile as we see you off!"
One member forced a grin, but tears still streamed uncontrollably down his face.
"Hahahaha…"
Kenpachi Kuruyashiki swept his gaze over the faces of his Squad 11 members, as if trying to burn them into memory. Then, still laughing, he turned and walked away.
"Captain!"
The Squad 11 members stood silently, watching him leave. Not one of them followed—they knew their captain didn't want to die in front of them.
Before long, Kenpachi Kuruyashiki figure vanished from sight. Then, that vast, torch-like spiritual pressure… went out.
Gotei 13, Combat Division, Squad 11 Captain, the Seventh Kenpachi—Kenpachi Kuruyashiki—had fallen in a Kenpachi Challenge!
The news swept across the entire Soul Society like a storm, shaking even the Royal Guard.
But no one noticed that, in a remote mountain, at the moment Kenpachi Kuruyashiki "died," strange white material gushed from the hole Sōya Azashiro had made in his chest. It spread over his entire body. At that moment, Kenpachi Kuruyashiki looked less like a Shinigami… and more like a Hollow.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
"Kill… Szayelaporro!"
As a Hollow, Kenpachi Kuruyashiki mind was in chaos. He didn't know who he was—and didn't care. But he knew who his enemy was: a pink-haired freak! (Szayelaporro's Hollow hole was in his groin, making him a "perfect being" without any… small Szayels.)
Riiip—
The sky tore open, and the Hollowfied Kuryashiki leapt straight into the Garganta. Szayelaporro must die!
Not long after Kuryashiki left, the Onmitsukidō's Special Forces arrived to collect his body at the place he had last been seen alive.
"…"
"Report to the higher-ups—the Seventh Kenpachi, Kenpachi Kuruyashiki, died taking a Vasto Lorde-class Hollow down with him."
The black-clad squad leader paused for a moment, feeling the mingled reishi of Shinigami and Hollow lingering in the air. Though he had never respected Squad 11's brutes, he had to admit—Kenpachi Kuruyashiki was a hero among heroes.
Hueco Mundo.
"Hahaha… I wonder what that Shinigami will become in the end? Will he be consumed by the Vasto Lorde inside him… or will he conquer it?"
Szayelaporro laughed in his laboratory. Ever since Baraggan Luisenbarn had taken to stargazing above Hueco Mundo, the place had been leaderless. Though Szayelaporro still managed Baraggan's palace, he lacked the overwhelming authority to keep all Hollows in check, and so challenges came often.
The strange liquid he had injected into Kenpachi Kuruyashiki body came from a newly emerged Vasto Lorde who had challenged his position. Szayelaporro found the memory of that Hollow's hateful glare before being turned into liquid… amusing.
"ROAR!!"
While Szayelaporro was reminiscing, a Garganta opened directly into his lab—out stepped the white-clad Kenpachi Kuruyashiki.
"Eh?!"
Szayelaporro froze. He had imagined many possibilities—either the Shinigami power winning over the Hollow, or vice versa—but in all cases, the other party would be gravely weakened. He had never imagined the man would return as a Shinigami-Hollow hybrid… and appear directly in his lab.
"This… is bad!"
Cold sweat beaded on Szayelaporro's forehead as he faced the terrifying reiatsu of this thing—neither Shinigami nor Hollow. Yes, this was his own creation… an accident. A research accident that should never have existed.