Watching the group that had split off to hunt Hollows, a faint, curious smile tugged at the corners of Aizen Sōsuke's lips, as though he had glimpsed an interesting future. What exactly amused him—no one could say.
No one noticed it.
And since no one saw, no one could be curious. Was following Aizen Sōsuke's squad really the safest option after all?
Not far away, a Hollow was already prowling in search of food.
For Hollows, food meant souls. The purer the soul, the more delicious and nourishing it was, even capable of strengthening a Hollow's reiatsu.
This one's prey was a young child, no more than seven or eight, a newly departed soul. Such freshly-formed souls were especially pure—precisely the delicacy Hollows loved most.
But the Hollow suddenly felt something wrong. Strong spiritual pressure was approaching, and it was not like the corrupt, foul pressure of other Hollows.
Hollows reeked of decay; their reiatsu was always heavy with corruption, foul enough to feel like rats scurrying through a sewer. Every Hollow carried that nauseating taint.
The reiatsu approaching now was different—clean, strong, oppressive.
Danger!
The warning flared in the Hollow's instincts. Its only thought was to escape. What meal? What feast? None of that mattered—what mattered was surviving these many powerful souls rapidly closing in.
The poor Hollow didn't know that the figures chasing it were not fully recognized Shinigami, but merely students of Shin'ō Spiritual Arts Academy, still in the middle of their graduation exams.
"Damn it! The Hollow's spotted us—it's running already. Looks like we've got no choice!"
"Heh… No choice, huh? You mean you're planning to kill it yourself? Don't act like it's some noble sacrifice. That's just an ordinary Hollow—hardly enough to satisfy all of us. You're just trying to steal the credit and graduate easily, aren't you? What a bastard."
"Pfft! He's always been an asshole. Now he wants to hog the glory and graduate all by himself? Typical."
"Oi, oi, don't go saying that crap in front of everyone. I'm not that selfish! What I'm doing is… this!"
The student raised his hand, reciting an incantation:
"Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini! Look upon yourself in horror, then claw out your own throat! Bakudō #9: Geki!"
From his fingertips, a yellow rope of light shot forth, wrapping around the fleeing Hollow in an instant. The creature struggled, bound tight, unable to move.
The others gasped, praising his skill.
But their admiration froze the next second.
High above, the sky itself split open.
Everyone's eyes widened in shock. They all knew what it meant—yet none could understand why it was happening. A Menos Grande was descending.
Menos were terrifying monsters among Hollows, capable of obliterating half a city with a single Cero blast. Any Shinigami without vice-captain-level strength or a released Zanpakutō had no business even standing before one.
Aoyama looked up, stunned, as a massive, clown-like mask pushed through the crack in the heavens.
"A… a Menos? How can a Menos Grande be here!?"
The twenty-odd students behind him were equally dumbfounded. The appearance of a Menos meant only destruction and death. Their sheer spiritual power alone could crush cities.
Aizen's expression sharpened. He drew his Zanpakutō and leapt into the air, slashing toward the rift in the sky.
"Begone, vile Menos!"
His blade cut like ripples across a lake, distorting the air, before releasing a shimmering slash of sword energy that surged upward.
A water-type Zanpakutō—Kyōka Suigetsu.
At least, that was how it looked through the surveillance equipment of the 12th Division's research staff. To them, his ability appeared strikingly similar to a water-based Zanpakutō.
Since the students had been dispatched to the human world as part of their practical exam, the Gotei 13 naturally prepared backup measures. No one had expected a Menos to appear, let alone multiple rifts tearing open across the sky.
The pressure radiating from the other side of the cracks made even the researchers in Soul Society shiver.
On the battlefield, Aizen gritted his teeth, sweat dripping from his brow, his stance trembling as though he were straining to his very limit. Yet the rifts continued to tear, one after another. A dozen—two dozen—each spewing forth the overwhelming reiatsu of Menos Grande. Even for a captain, the fight seemed crushing.
Back in the 12th Division, vice-captain Nemu Kurotsuchi noted the alarm and immediately analyzed the situation:
"The sudden surge of Shinigami reiatsu must have destabilized the Hollow World. That would explain why the Menos are tearing open the boundary—they want to see what the Shinigami are attempting."
"But whatever the reason, we cannot allow more Menos to descend. Especially since Captain Aizen's power is being deliberately sealed—he cannot unleash his full strength against so many Menos."
She turned to her subordinates, voice calm and mechanical:
"Send an urgent report to Captain Mayuri. Monitor the situation closely. If anything unexpected occurs, notify me immediately. Understood?"
"Yes, Vice-Captain!"
As an artificially-created soul, Nemu displayed no emotion—only cold efficiency.
Soon, the emergency spread across Soul Society. All the captains of the Gotei 13 were summoned for an urgent meeting by Head Captain Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni.
They could not ignore the crisis, yet neither could they recklessly send captains to the human world. If captains released their full power there, the spiritual pressure could warp reality itself and collapse entire cities.
The meeting dragged on, but the situation grew worse by the second. Finally, Yamamoto slammed his cane down with a thunderous crack.
"Enough of this prattle! A mere group of Menos, and you suggest sending every captain to the living world? Do you intend to leave the Seireitei unguarded? Do you wish for the collapse of Soul Society itself?!"
His furious roar silenced the hall instantly.