Facing the domain unleashed by the Hollow King's right arm, Yoshio stepped forward and transformed into the Mother of Time.
"Mother of Time: This avatar symbolizes the goddess of Time, Power, Death and Rebirth. Once you dance, the world perishes."
This was the soul ability of Nezuko, and after obtaining it, Yoshio naturally possessed it permanently.
And among all the powers Yoshio had ever wielded, this one could probably be called the most violent.
In the state of being reincarnated as the Mother of Time, just by dancing alone he could destroy the world!
This was a conditionally limited technique. He couldn't destroy the world through simple indiscriminate destruction; only when he performed a specific dance while in the state of Mother of Time would the entire world be annihilated.
The so-called Mother of Time referred to the goddess Kali, wife of Shiva in Hindu mythology. Within certain sects, Goddess Kali is the strongest goddess in the entire mythos; once she becomes enraged, even the three-tier god Shiva is no match for her!
At that moment, countless strands of black aura gushed out of Yoshio's body. As that darkness spread, it dragged everything around into a domain of destruction.
Even existent matter—time itself—seemed as if it were being broken down and erased!
Yoshio's own body was dyed jet-black; four arms sprouted, a third eye opened on his forehead, his figure grew slender, and he completely transformed into the darkest, most tyrannical goddess.
The Hollow King's right hand lacked an independent mind, but even it felt the terrifying sensation erupting from Yoshio's body at that moment. That feeling was so overpowering it was as if its very existence was about to be erased!
"The gods… are angry!"
Yoshio brought his hands together, leaving a triangular gap between his palms. In an instant, black energy condensed within that triangle!
Darkness spread silently, then shot forth as a beam of light aimed directly at the Hollow King's right hand.
The vertical pupil on the Hollow King's right hand snapped open. Its Cero of the Hollow King condensed before the eye in a flash, gathering immense power—but all of it was swallowed by the darkness. Even the Hollow King's Cero was no exception.
After devouring the Cero, the darkness pierced straight through the body of the Hollow King's right arm, blasting a massive hole in its huge form.
No blood flowed from the void within—its insides were empty, like a hollow shell.
The dark power that symbolized destruction concentrated around the center of that void and spread outwards, corroding the area around the Hollow King's right hand.
With a single blow, the reishi pressure of the Hollow King's right hand instantly withered. The next moment, Yoshio's figure vanished from where he had been.
When he reappeared, he was already before the Hollow King's right hand. He extended a finger toward its massive form.
Even as the Mother of Time, Yoshio had not enlarged his physical body; by contrast, the Hollow King's right arm stood several dozen meters tall. Compared to that colossal monster, Yoshio was like an ant.
So when he raised his finger, he could only touch the lower section of the Hollow King's right hand.
But although their sizes were vastly different, their relative strengths were exactly the opposite of their physiques.
The instant Yoshio's hand touched the Hollow King's right arm, its body began to vanish. When he then condensed a Hadō in his palm, that power became even more terrifying!
"Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws!
Hadō #33: Sōkatsui!"
Yoshio had many ways to defeat this opponent. But suddenly, he wanted to see how strong a fully chanted Hadō would be in his current state.
In an instant, the originally ordinary Hadō twisted and warped under his present power, finally being dyed a pitch-black, dark-crimson cannon!
That dark-crimson blast carried a terrifying force that seemed capable of destroying everything, a power that symbolized absolute death!
Boom…!
Once Yoshio fired, that small, dark-red cannon struck the entire Hollow King's right arm. The limb, already deeply weakened and corroded by the wrath of the gods, began to crumble.
Under the blast of this red cannon, the body of the Hollow King's right arm seemed on the verge of completely melting away!
Only now did Yoshio allow himself a faint smile.
He had only wanted to test his full strength—how powerful it would be when he, as a Transcendent, unleashed the power of his soul.
Now he could see clearly: even measuring himself against the level of the Hollow King's left and right hands was no longer sufficient to define his current strength.
If he had the time, he really ought to visit the Great Monk again and test how strong he was while in the state of the Mother of Time.
But for the moment…
Yoshio stared at the rapidly disintegrating right hand of the Hollow King, then raised his hand again and activated his Host ability on it.
Just as he had absorbed the Hollow King's left hand before, this time he devoured the right hand as well.
That powerful right arm of the Hollow King was once more housed within his body, and the same sudden sense of fullness he had experienced back when he first grasped the left hand surged up inside him.
Now, only Baelz was missing.
Angra's composition was Transcendence + Hollow King's Left Hand.
Yoshio's composition was Transcendence + Hollow King's Right Hand.
Currently, Baelz's composition was only Transcendence—he lacked any attached part.
But there was no need to rush; preparations for that were already underway.
After settling the matter of the Hollow King's right arm, Yoshio did not return to the Soul Society. Instead, he headed in the opposite direction.
There was a Shinigami force in Hueco Mundo!
Yes—recently, the Shinigami had once again entered the Hollow World.
But this time, they hadn't come to fight the original Arrancar, nor to track down any trace of Urahara Kisuke. They had entered Hueco Mundo to find Tokinada Tsunayashiro!
After Tokinada Tsunayashiro's death, the survival investigation squad in the World of the Living had successfully discovered several of his surface bases.
Many materials were found within those bases. Using this information, the Department of Research and Development finally pinpointed his true base.
It wasn't in the modern world, but in Hueco Mundo itself!
Thanks to their prior experience infiltrating Hueco Mundo, it was a bit troublesome, but not too difficult for Mayuri Kurotsuchi to send Shinigami there again.
That was why Yoshio didn't want to drag out his battle with the Hollow King's right arm. If someone detected it, that'd be bad.
In his strongest state as the Mother of Time, even the reishi pressure emanating from the Hollow King's right arm had been completely erased. Aside from the massive disturbance when he first appeared, everything had been quiet.
If anyone had been watching, they would have felt terror for only a single instant—and then their vision would have been swallowed by darkness.
Once the darkness faded, nothing remained inside it.
Because Yoshio had already left that place.
…
This time, the number of Shinigami dispatched to Hueco Mundo was not large. Because nobles were involved, the leaders this time were the 2nd Division Captain Suì-Fēng and the 6th Division Captain Kuchiki Byakuya.
The Onmitsukidō was under noble jurisdiction, and the 6th Division was the noble-led command unit—so these two captains were the most suitable.
And in any case, they hadn't come for a battle. As long as those two captains were present, that was enough.
Tokinada Tsunayashiro's base was underground within Hueco Mundo, and not shallow—its range extended down to about three thousand meters below the surface.
Breaking through three thousand meters of reishi sand would normally be very difficult. However, for this operation the Department of Research and Development had supplied numerous tools. Their movements were also fully monitored by R&D, which could provide technical guidance at any time.
Hinamori opened an iron box. Once opened, a large number of strange insects crawled out.
They were called bugs, yet each one had a disturbingly human face, twisted in pain, on its head!
Once released, the insects immediately started devouring the reishi sand below.
As they ate, they also began vomiting a liquid. That liquid was extremely corrosive and started to melt the reishi sand beneath them.
In other words: they ate the sand, spat acid to corrode it, then kept eating and corroding—repeating the cycle.
Thanks to the insects' efforts, a deep shaft was quickly gnawed out, eventually reaching three thousand meters below.
A metal iron wall blocked the insects. But as they continued spitting out their fluids, that wall was eventually corroded into a large hole.
Once they arrived, the Shinigami moved. One by one, they leapt down through the vertical shaft and entered the underground base.
The first to enter was Suì-Fēng. The last to enter was Kuchiki Byakuya.
Only after everyone had entered did they begin exploring inside the base.
The base was very large and filled with a sinister aura. Corpses were scattered everywhere. There were Hollows, there were dead souls, and ordinary spirits which had not yet become either of the two.
The two captains ignored all this. They had not come to condemn Tokinada Tsunayashiro; they had come to investigate the entity behind Tokinada Tsunayashiro.
Whether it was what Yoshio and Hitsugaya Tōshirō had heard in the World of the Living, or what Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni had heard on the battlefield in Seireitei—everything had pointed to the fact that behind Tokinada Tsunayashiro, there was a "god."
A "god" who could make members of the Five Noble Houses of the Tsunayashiro family believe, who could silently pull him out of the solitary hell and in just a few decades bestow upon him a staggering amount of power—such a being at his back could only be unimaginably powerful!
What's more, during the last battle, the weakened Hollow King had appeared once more.
Was this related?
Could the one behind Tokinada Tsunayashiro actually be the Hollow King?
If that were the case, then they had to come. Now was the Hollow King's weakest period, and they had to exploit that weakness to kill him.
If the Hollow King still existed, things would only become more terrifying!
Did that mean the enemy could command the Hollow King at will?!
"Corps Commander!"
Suddenly, a Onmitsukidō soldier ran up to Suì-Fēng and reported,
"Up ahead we've found an iron door we can't open!"
"That iron door… it's a bit strange. Even with six of us using Hadō together, we still couldn't break it!"
"Oh?"
Suì-Fēng and Byakuya immediately rushed over. There, in the underground base, stood a large bronze iron door. On that door was a man's face, twisted as if in agony.
Sensing the strong reishi pressure present here, the "man" seemed to awaken. Eyes flying open, he abruptly roared, and light began to gather within his mouth!
It was as if someone had embedded a Hollow into this bronze door, fusing it into a gate guardian.
"So it's alive, then…"
Suì-Fēng appeared right in front of the door. Without any chant, she had already released her Zanpakutō. In an instant, she stabbed twice, activating Nigeki Kessatsu – Two-Strike Kill before the gate guardian could fire its Cero.
Just as Suì-Fēng had suspected, this door was essentially a living creature, and it died in two hits.
This terrifying gate guardian died without even displaying its power, slain with ease by a captain.
After the guardian's death, the door lost all its strange energy and could be pushed open even by Suì-Fēng alone.
When she pushed the door, a huge mural came into view.
The room was a little dark, but the contents of the mural were still clearly visible.
It was…
A giant tree.
However, the tree was inverted, its roots at the top and its trunk stretching downward.
The tree bore no leaves. Instead, it radiated a bizarre and frightening aura. Looking carefully, one could see countless phantom shapes of monsters lurking amid its branches and trunk.
Suì-Fēng frowned and stepped closer, wanting a clearer look.
The room was extremely dark; no light seeped in from outside. It was like the bottom of an abyss.
As Suì-Fēng walked up to the mural, she could see more clearly.
Indeed, this enormous inverted tree was covered with uncountable ugly demons.
They hid in the shadows of the branches and trunk, but each revealed faint traces of its presence.
Suì-Fēng crouched down, trying to see the demon at the very bottom of the tree—technically its "top", since the tree was inverted.
Unconsciously, her hand reached out and touched the mural. It felt extremely strange, nothing like stone or any hard material. It felt like touching the soft skin of a woman.
That sensation was oddly comforting. It even reminded Suì-Fēng of the feeling of flesh on a night in the Shihōin manor…
She stared closely at the demons above, and suddenly it felt as if one of the demons had stepped out from the painting.
Originally that demon had done its best to hide its body among the branches and leaves, but at that moment Suì-Fēng noticed that there was a demon revealing its face.
And that face…
"That's… my face?!"
How could that be?!
Startled, Suì-Fēng tried to pull back. But she realized her hand was stuck to the mural and wouldn't come free!
The demon with her own face smiled. The next instant, a voice sounded right in Suì-Fēng's ear.
"Do you want revenge on that woman?"
!?
Suì-Fēng wanted to speak, but no sound came out. She could only think the words in her mind:
"Who are you?"
"I am you. I am the embodiment of your deepest desire."
The voice was a low, demonic murmur, as if another Suì-Fēng were leaning into her ear, whispering.
"You hate Shihōin Yoruichi, but you love Yoruichi Shihōin even more. Yet you don't have the power."
"Back then, when you faced her during the night at the Shihōin manor, this other, stronger 'you' failed. So unless you find the true strength within your heart, you will never be able to save her."
"…"
"But I can help you. I can give you power far greater than hers. Then, when the time comes, you can bring her to your side, and she will forever be your little wild cat~"
The soft whisper was like a devil's temptation. Suì-Fēng felt something in her heart awakening.
Happy scenes of being with Shihōin Yoruichi emerged in her mind. Her face flushed red, and her eyes gradually grew hazy.
Just as she was immersed in this vision of a happy little world with Yoruichi, a voice suddenly shattered the illusion.
"Captain Suì-Fēng, what are you doing?"
A hand landed on her shoulder. Suì-Fēng snapped awake, returning to herself. The hand on her shoulder belonged to Kuchiki Byakuya.
Regaining her senses, Suì-Fēng immediately yanked her hand away from the mural, gasping.
"Just now… what was I…?"
Byakuya frowned and said calmly:
"You were squatting there, silently touching the mural. I thought you'd discovered something."
"…"
A little rattled, Suì-Fēng straightened up and said stiffly:
"There's something wrong with this mural."
"Wrong?"
Suì-Fēng's throat tightened. She found that she could no longer recall exactly what images she'd just seen.
Was she really going to say that, in front of her subordinates, she didn't want to kill a traitor, but only wanted to live happily with her?
In the end, she could only say,
"The demons on this mural… they're 'alive'. They whisper tempting words in your ear. I don't know what happens afterwards."
"Fools!"
Before Byakuya could respond, Mayuri Kurotsuchi's voice exploded from the communicator in Suì-Fēng's pocket.
"Don't touch something like that, you fools! I worked so hard to open this Garganta for you. I won't let you idiots destroy my precious materials!"
"No!"
Suì-Fēng said sharply,
"This thing must be destroyed!"
"Destroyed? Do you have any idea what you're saying?"
Mayuri spoke in an incredulous tone.
"You may have just found the most valuable information in the entire world, and you want to destroy it? You're a naked criminal!"
"You'll be remembered as a sinner of history!"
"I don't care about being a 'sinner of history.'"
Suì-Fēng sneered.
"You didn't even see what just happened and now you're yelling at me?"
She raised her hand, intending to smash the mural.
"Idiot!"
Mayuri scolded bitterly. The next instant, several beams of light shot out from Suì-Fēng's body and bound her on the spot.
Suì-Fēng's pupils contracted.
"You…?!"
"Hmph. I knew a reckless woman like you would ruin my good work, so when you used my tools to traverse the Garganta, I put a little insurance in place."
Mayuri's proud, slightly gloomy voice rang out.
"Hmph. Leave it to me now."
The next moment, Suì-Fēng felt nauseous, like she was about to vomit.
But it wasn't leftover food that came out of her mouth—it was a person crawling out!
That person was Mayuri Kurotsuchi!
Unbelievable!
His body was far larger than Suì-Fēng's, and yet he had just crawled out of her mouth—how had he even gotten into her body in the first place?
"You… you bastard!"
Suì-Fēng's face twisted in revulsion. Mayuri, spat out and dripping, didn't care in the slightest.
"Ah, right. Since I just crawled out of your body… should I call you 'mother'?"
Mayuri let out a chillingly neurotic laugh. He no longer paid any attention to Suì-Fēng and instead stared fixedly at the stone wall.
Byakuya remained expressionless at this scene, though the disgust he felt for Mayuri was unmistakable in his aura.
"What you're doing is tantamount to provoking conflict between captains."
"That doesn't matter."
Still facing the mural, Mayuri replied casually.
"If you think I've done something wrong, go report me to Captain-Commander Yamamoto or Central 46."
He looked utterly fearless—because he knew that neither Yamamoto nor Central 46 could live without him.
This was the freedom of a genius.
In his eyes, everyone in Seireitei was a fool who couldn't do without him. Without the guidance of a genius, they were like poor infants who didn't even know how to eat.
"Alright, this mission is perfectly complete. Bring everything back to the Department of Research and Development. I'll take the first step."
Mayuri took out a fat caterpillar-like creature from his sleeve. It didn't look large, yet with a single gulp, it swallowed the entire mural.
Once the mural vanished, light entered the secret chamber. Sunshine from outside poured in, chasing away the darkness within.
Along with it…
Suì-Fēng vomited twice more in disgust. By the time she lifted her head again, Mayuri's form had already disappeared.
"That bastard…"
Suì-Fēng's face looked terrible. Anyone would look the same after going through what she'd just experienced.
He'd actually gone inside her body—then drilled his way out in such a disgusting fashion!
"Hehe. It's pathetic, but it's all because you're too weak."
Suddenly, the voice of "herself" echoed again in her mind.
Suì-Fēng's pupils shrank.
"You're still here?"
"You thought I was the demon of the mural? No. I already told you, I am you—your own desire."
The voice resounded quietly.
"You were planning to use my strength from the beginning. That mural was just your excuse, so you could say to yourself—"
"'Look, I haven't fallen. I was only invaded by a demon after touching the mural. My heart is still pure and flawless. Everything was forced on me from outside…'"
"Isn't it easy to find excuses and reasons for yourself?"
"But you don't have to be like this. I know exactly what you're thinking."
Just as Suì-Fēng was about to respond, Byakuya's voice rang out again.
"The mission is concluded. Let's leave first."
Suì-Fēng said nothing and only nodded.
Byakuya didn't press. Anyone who had seen what Mayuri had done just now would be in a foul mood.
When Mayuri returned to the Department of Research and Development, he immediately pinched the fat bug to death, and the mural emerged from a warped bubble of space.
Seeing the mural again, Mayuri smiled.
"Captain Mayuri, what did you find?"
A voice sounded behind him.
The smile on his face vanished. As he turned and saw the two figures approaching, he said lightly:
"You arrived quite fast."
"After all, it was Captain Suì-Fēng and Captain Kuchiki who moved personally, and everyone was watching."
This entire expedition had been monitored by all the captains together—it was a mission under full captain-level surveillance. Everyone knew what had just taken place.
After seeing Mayuri take away the mural, Captain-Commander Yamamoto naturally sent two captains over to see it.
Unohana Retsu said quietly:
"Also, Captain Mayuri, I think your methods should be… more restrained from now on."
She was of course referring to the way he had crawled out of Suì-Fēng's mouth.
Mayuri snorted coldly.
"You think I have any interest in her body?"
"It would be better if you don't."
Kyōraku Shunsui smirked.
"Captain Suì-Fēng is still young, after all. What if she never gets married in the future?"
Unohana shot Shunsui a sidelong glance, making him shut his mouth at once. He straightened his face and said seriously:
"Alright, Captain Mayuri. Let us see this mural."
"Of course I want to show it to you, but I need a test subject first."
Mayuri's eerie smile returned. He turned his gaze to them.
"You heard what Captain Suì-Fēng said earlier. After touching this mural, a demon appears."
"So then… who among you will volunteer?"
He looked from Unohana to Kyōraku. Both of them remained politely, stubbornly unresponsive.
Mayuri snorted.
"Then what did you come here for? You're not even willing to serve as experimental subjects. Truly useless."
"We won't be test subjects, but we can still see things clearly."
Unohana calmly studied the large tree in the mural.
"Does this mural represent the 'god' behind Tokinada Tsunayashiro?"
"Tokinada Tsunayashiro…"
Kyōraku also spoke up.
"Could he have been some sort of evil spirit that crawled out from there? And if there's an inverted tree… then there must be an upright one, right? What do those two represent?"
"The world."
Mayuri said flatly.
"The world?"
Kyōraku's expression tightened.
"You mean these two trees represent the world? How so?"
"The upright tree represents our world—the world created by the Soul King."
"The inverted tree is the polar opposite of our world. That is to say…"
Mayuri's tone dropped; his words slowed.
"A world that was swallowed by the Hollow King."
!?
Both pairs of eyes widened.
At their level, this was a truth they might never fully comprehend. Mayuri, having spoken that much, immediately cut himself off and fell silent.
"We don't want to know what happens next. We only want to know one thing, Captain Mayuri…"
Kyōraku spoke slowly.
"How do you know all this…?"
"Oh? Finally, a serious question."
Mayuri turned his back to them, staring at the inverted tree as he spoke in a low voice.
"Of course it's because…"
"…I can hear the voice of the Hollow King~"
!?
…
"Phew, not a bad effect at all."
Once all the captains who had gone to Hueco Mundo had returned, Yoshio, who had also come back, smiled faintly.
He had created godhood and had been waiting for the Grand Fisher to retrieve it…
After the evil node of Beelzebub—the "The Shell That Clings Outside Matter"—had been attached, he'd used that power to make this god truly exist.
That "god"… was himself.
Becoming a god was never something that could be done in a single step.
He had to progress gradually.
And he didn't want to become a god merely at the level of the Soul King. He wanted to surpass the Soul King.
To surpass the Soul King, the gods first needed supporting beings.
Like a pyramid: there can only be one at the peak, but that apex still needs all the layers below it for support.
First, create the Hollow King. Then, by taking that Hollow King as a stepping stone, he could climb to an even higher divine position.
In fact, just the Hollow King and Soul King alone were still not enough. There should be even more gods!
In the past, he'd been too fixated on the Three Realms. But now, he clearly held many extremely powerful soul abilities whose power did not belong to the Three Realms.
So why not create more gods?
If the Three Realms had their native gods, then surely beyond the Three Realms there could also be "foreign gods."
For example, soul abilities like "Mother of Time," "Goddess of Death," "Embodiment of Light," and so forth…
Hell might also count as being "outside the Three Realms," but for now Yoshio knew very little about it, and had no idea whether some "God of Hell" existed there.
If not, he could reluctantly try to play that role himself.
If these gods were prepared as foreshadowing, then one day he might become the one and only god who transcended all existence.
He had never considered such things before, and that had indeed been limited by his power.
Sometimes only the idea was present, but nothing could be done.
First you needed enough strength. Once you had it, you could craft follow-up plans tailored to your power.
Otherwise, when you eventually grew strong enough, you'd look back on the plans you'd made when you were weak and realize how laughable they were.
For example, his original "Three-Body Fusion Plan" had only intended to fuse three limit-level beings.
Later, once Angra had broken through the limit, he was forced to think about pulling the other two beyond the limit as well.
Afterwards, when he created the Hollow King's left hand and Angra devoured it to gain power, he now had to find something almost equivalent to the Hollow King's left hand for the other two.
And in the future, the standard might be raised yet again.
As the saying goes: When humans plan, the gods laugh.
Looking back now on his old plans, Yoshio couldn't help wanting to laugh at himself a little.
But this wasn't exactly wrong either. Power truly did limit a person's imagination.
Back then, he had been too weak; even if he had plans, they would have been pointless, because he couldn't have carried them out.
Now that he was a Transcendent, having devoured the Hollow King's right hand, his strength had reached a terrifying realm.
In terms of raw combat power without counting soul abilities, he was still inferior to the Great Monk. But if soul abilities were factored in, the Great Monk was no longer his match at all.
With greater strength came a naturally higher vantage point.
Yoshio crushed the last of the evil nodes.
This was the Two-Headed One node—the final one to be purified, leaving only its core node behind.
Among all the particles, the Two-Headed One alone remained unfused.
The most difficult textures to integrate were those of Yhwach and Aizen.
To fuse Yhwach's texture, he'd have to rely on Baelz's Equivalent Exchange. But Equivalent Exchange could only be used once per year and came with many restrictions.
By comparison, integrating the Two-Headed One texture would be fairly easy, given the right opportunity.
Aizen, on the other hand, was fated to fuse with the Hōgyoku. So Yoshio did not merge the Two-Headed One slate into the Hōgyoku.
That Hōgyoku still had to go to Aizen. After all, it was useless to Yoshio. Yet precisely because of that, it was easier to keep track of through the fragments within Rukia's body.
So he wanted to embed this core into the Hōgyoku shard within Rukia.
Thus, as soon as Yoshio returned to the Soul Society, he began acting once again…
…
In the empty lot—
Rukia had just acknowledged the heavily wounded Ichigo, but refused to let him kill the Hollow.
Because the duty of a Shinigami was not to kill Hollows, but to purify them.
The nature of Ichigo's current power was unknown, so the purification of Hollows was best left to Rukia herself.
Looking at Ichigo's profile, Rukia seemed somewhat lost in thought.
"Hey, are you not going to answer?"
Ichigo looked at her and asked.
"No, it's just… something came to mind."
Rukia walked over and destroyed the immobilized Hollow.
When her Zanpakutō cut through the Hollow's soul, that soul was also purified.
"Actually… I've always had a question."
Ichigo scratched his head awkwardly and asked,
"Why have you been helping me all this time?"
"Why even ask? Shinigami are meant to protect humans."
Rukia answered absentmindedly.
"But your 'protecting me' should've ended by now."
Leaning against the wall behind him, Ichigo cocked his head and continued.
In theory, once a Shinigami discovered an anomaly like Ichigo, they should have reported him to Central 46.
And even with her assignment in this town, she could always make a quick trip back to report. It wouldn't take that much time.
Even if she was missing from this town for a day, there wouldn't be any major problem.
But Rukia had been afraid that Central 46 would consider Ichigo's budding power as something beyond her control and would order her to eliminate him.
So she wanted Ichigo to perform well during this period, making Central 46 believe that she could handle this new power with her own hands.
She had two reasons for this.
One was that Ichigo had fought desperately to protect his sister, which Rukia deeply appreciated.
The second reason…
Was that he looked far too similar…
Staring at Ichigo's profile, Rukia seemed to see an image that had been sealed in her heart for years:
The Lieutenant, Kaien Shiba—who had died before her eyes.
Whenever she saw Ichigo's face, she felt as if Kaien was still alive.
"Idiot…"
Rukia said softly.
"As long as you're still human, you ought to be protected by a Shinigami."
"Especially now that your reishi power has awakened. Hollows will be attracted to your reiryoku."
"That means Hollows will often come after you. If I'm with you, I can deal with them more easily."
"I see…"
Ichigo nodded, not sure if he truly understood.
Just then, Rukia suddenly said,
"Alright. You head back first—I'll go check something over there."
"Mm."
Ichigo nodded and headed home.
Once he left, Rukia's face quickly darkened.
This reishi pressure…
Ichigo wouldn't be able to handle it.
She had to move herself.
Rukia dashed toward the source of that reishi pressure, unable to hide her growing sense of surprise.
Because she wasn't entirely sure she could call what she was sensing "reishi pressure" at all.
She had been a Shinigami for many years, yet she had never felt such a strange power.
This town was truly a "great reishi land." First there had been humans with psychic abilities, and now there was this bizarre reishi pressure.
It truly deserved to be called the first "super-heavy reishi land" in history.
Rukia quickly arrived at her destination—an elementary school playground.
Now that elementary and middle schools had entered summer vacation, this was a time when children often played outside.
Seeing the kids at play, Rukia's uneasiness intensified.
If a battle broke out here, those children would…
Be doomed!
Rukia's gaze fixed upon the source of the strange power, and her pupils widened.
That back…
Was inexplicably familiar.
A bit shorter, and at a glance she could tell it belonged to a rather weak-looking woman.
Black reiryoku filled the air around her. As Rukia approached, the woman turned around.
The instant Rukia saw her face, her pupils dilated violently.
That woman was clearly herself?!
No—not her.
They were incredibly similar, but Rukia still noticed a few differences in her brows. They were very subtle; had she not seen her own face every day, she might not have noticed them at all.
"You…"
Rukia wanted to ask, Who are you?—but just as she opened her mouth, the woman vanished from where she'd stood and reappeared directly in front of her.
So fast!
Rukia's pupils shrank in pain. The woman had already pierced through her body with a single palm strike.
The next second, Rukia's vision blurred, and she lost consciousness.
"Actually… I've always had a question."
Suddenly, a voice pulled Rukia's mind out of the trance. She shook her head in panic and saw that Ichigo was once again standing before her.
Ichigo looked slightly bewildered.
"Why have you been helping me all this time?"
At those words, Rukia's pupils trembled.
Hadn't she… heard this line before?
…