"You're saying… I'm Cole's lackey?"
Rukia pointed a finger at herself, staring incredulously at the manifested zanpakuto spirits in front of her.
Just now, these zanpakuto had called her a "lackey" several times, but she'd assumed they were talking about someone else.
Never in her wildest dreams had she thought… they were talking about her.
"Aren't you?"
The zanpakuto spirit named Mera, flames flickering in her hair, glared fiercely at Rukia.
"If you're not this Hollow's lackey, then why were you helping him tear down the Phoenix Palace?"
"This…"
Rukia's face flushed with embarrassment.
Just a moment ago, she'd noticed there were no reiatsu fluctuations in this place and had assumed no one was living here.
She'd never imagined there were zanpakuto living inside.
The zanpakuto spirit named Tokie sighed softly and looked at Rukia with a sorrowful expression.
"Shinigami, you must have been threatened or deceived by that Hollow, right? I understand. You're a pitiful soul too."
The zanpakuto spirit named Saiko silently plucked out one of her own teeth. Reiatsu surged, and the tooth transformed into a hammer in her hand.
"Whatever the story is, since you've become a Hollow's lackey, I still have to give you a proper beating."
"…"
Watching the abilities of these manifested zanpakuto beauties, Cole couldn't help but stare in fascinated awe.
"This is seriously impressive… Fire, smithing hammers, whetstones, chisels, polishing cloths… they're all forging-type abilities."
For ordinary Shinigami, the soul of their zanpakuto was their one-and-only lifelong partner.
But for the Sword God Oetsu, he could casually forge zanpakuto and even create their manifested forms.
Given enough time, this guy could probably forge an entire Seireitei by himself.
Though honestly, this bastard…
Had basically used all that power to build his own private harem.
"Quit saying weird things, Cole! Hurry up and explain it to them already! They all think I'm your lackey!"
Rukia looked at Cole anxiously.
She absolutely did not want to be misunderstood by this many zanpakuto. She was a captain, after all.
Cole blinked and held out his right hand to her. Under her puzzled gaze, he made a noise.
"Here, doggy, here, doggy, here, doggy…"
"Here, doggy, here, doggy, here, doggy…"
The first time he did it, Rukia was still confused, not understanding what he was trying to pull.
But by the second round, she finally put it together.
Her cheeks flushed bright red, and she lunged at him in a fury.
"You jerk, Cole! I'm not a little dog!"
Those manifested zanpakuto had just called her his lackey.
And now Cole was using that to tease her too.
The more she thought about it, the more wronged she felt.
In a burst of frustration, she opened her mouth wide and sank her teeth into Cole's hand.
"Ow, ow, ow…"
Cole couldn't help laughing, even as he cried out in pain and yanked his hand back.
"Alright, alright, Rukia. Even if you were a little dog, you'd definitely be the super cute kind. No need to get so mad."
Rukia still glared at him, her cheeks puffed out.
"I don't care. Hurry up and change back. This is all your fault anyway. Why do you have to stay in your Hollow form all the time?"
The Visoreds and Ichigo could only maintain their Hollow states for a few minutes at most.
But Cole's Hollow form seemed to have no beginning and no end— he could stay like that anytime, anywhere.
"Yeah, yeah… change back into Shinigami form, right?"
Cole agreed readily, letting out a long breath.
He couldn't even remember how long he had stayed Hollowfied this time.
With a thought, the Hollow power within him rapidly receded.
The seven or eight manifested zanpakuto beside him, and the dozens more watching from a distance, all widened their beautiful eyes at once.
"No way, he really is a Shinigami!?"
"He actually looks kind of handsome."
"Liar, this has gotta be some Hollow ability. How could a Hollow turn into a Shinigami?"
"But the power he's giving off is totally Shinigami."
"Exactly. His spiritual pressure is really clean, not a trace of that blackened Hollow malice."
The chirping voices rang out again—
But this time, the anger from before was gone.
Those tearful zanpakuto girls got to their feet, tentatively reaching out to poke at Cole.
"It's true… soft and squishy. He's a Shinigami."
"And the Hollow mask is gone too."
"But how can a Shinigami possess Hollow powers? I've never heard of that before."
They huddled around Cole, chattering nonstop as they reached out to touch his arms, shoulders, and chest.
Cole couldn't help chuckling as he patted each zanpakuto girl on the head.
Having been born and raised in the Soul King Palace, these manifested zanpakuto were unbelievably naive.
Seeing this, Rukia nearly blew her top.
She stomped in front of Cole and held her arms out protectively.
"You bad zanpakuto! You were just calling me Cole's lackey. You know you were wrong now, right? Hurry up and apologize!"
The zanpakuto girls looked at each other, then bowed their heads in shame and apologized to Rukia in unison.
"Sorry, little one. We shouldn't have called you names."
"We're sorry…"
"You're a good kid."
"Your zanpakuto is a good kid too."
"But you didn't really get mad. Your zanpakuto told us you're just jealous right now."
Rukia was very satisfied at first—
But when she heard the last part, her face turned scarlet. She looked at the manifested zanpakuto shyly.
"You can hear Sode no Shirayuki's voice?"
Normally, a manifested zanpakuto could only communicate with its own master.
Because of that, even though Sode no Shirayuki desperately wanted to meet Cole, she couldn't manifest, and could only fling herself about within the snow.
Tokie smiled and said,
"Of course. We're manifested zanpakuto ourselves, so of course we can talk with other zanpakuto."
The chisel-type zanpakuto spirit Nozomi, who served as a forging chisel, swung her arm happily.
"Your zanpakuto is really pretty. In the world of snow and ice she looks just like an ice princess."
Mera sniffed with annoyance.
"I hate ice-type zanpakuto the most, especially ones that feel that cold all the time."
Saiko said calmly,
"If you want, I can hammer your zanpakuto's manifested form out for you— give her the ability to materialize freely."
As she spoke, she gave the hammer in her hand— once a tooth, now transformed— a little wave.
Among all the manifested zanpakuto Oetsu had forged, she was the most special one.
Her job was to hammer.
Given enough time, she could do what Muramasa did— hammer out zanpakuto manifestations.
"Eh? You can hammer a manifested zanpakuto out? There's actually something like that!?"
Rukia was genuinely surprised.
Mera curled her lip.
"What do you think Oetsu is? He's the creator of all zanpakuto."
They were all creations of Oetsu. In their eyes, he was an almighty existence.
Cole raised an eyebrow and gave his golden staff a spin.
"So what you're saying is, that guy Oetsu is basically the same as Muramasa— able to make zanpakuto betray their masters?"
When he'd watched the anime, he'd always felt that this so-called Sword God didn't live up to his name.
But listening to these zanpakuto girls talk made it clear Oetsu's ability was terrifying.
He could cuck any Shinigami with their own zanpakuto as much as he wanted.
And since Oetsu's power far surpassed Muramasa's and Kyoka Suigetsu (Mirror Flower, Water Moon), the effect he could produce would outstrip both of them.
He might even be able to make a zanpakuto permanently betray its Shinigami…
Or completely strip a Shinigami of their zanpakuto's powers.
Mera jumped in fright, quickly clapping a hand over her own mouth and shaking her head.
"You're overthinking it! Oetsu doesn't have that kind of ability! And I don't even know who this Muramasa you're talking about is!"
So naive. So cute. I wanna keep one!
The exact same thought popped into Cole's and Rukia's heads at the same time.
Seeing that the misunderstanding had been cleared up, Nozomi let out a sigh of relief, patted her chest, and said happily to Cole,
"Cole, since you're a Shinigami after all, that means you won't keep tearing down the Phoenix Palace, right?"
"Eh? Why not?"
Cole looked at Nozomi in puzzlement—
And as he spoke, he casually reached out, grabbed a chunk of the palace wall, and absorbed it.
With spiritual power this rich all around…
How could he not take advantage?
The zanpakuto girls of Oetsu's personal guard were driven half mad with anger again.
Tokie's eyes filled with tears.
"Aren't you a Shinigami? Why are you still tearing our home down? That's way too mean!"
Cole kept absorbing the ambient spiritual energy while waving a fist smugly.
"Hey, I beat Oetsu, didn't I? His stuff is my stuff now. What's wrong with me tearing down my own home?"
Then he turned to the crowd of beautiful zanpakuto girls with a bright smile.
"And it's not just the Phoenix Palace. You're all my spoils of war now too. Come on, gather up and give me a nice massage."
The zanpakuto girls burst into tears again, huddling together in fright.
Oetsu's personal guard were also scared out of their wits, looking at Cole like he was some final-boss demon king.
Seeing their reactions, Cole was quite satisfied— but the more he looked around, the more he wanted to storm over and beat Oetsu up again.
This Western God General was completely debauched.
The Soul King Palace was supposed to be a sacred, inviolable place, and this guy had basically opened a nightclub on top of a Zero Division Palace.
Not only were there colorful mood lights everywhere, there were scantily dressed zanpakuto ladies all over the place.
It was straight-up imperial-level treatment.
When he'd first barged in, if he hadn't known this was the Soul King Palace, he'd have thought he'd been sent back to the nightclubs from his previous life.
"So this is what a demon king's lifestyle looks like, huh…"
Ignoring Rukia's tiny fists pounding against him, Cole threw his head back and laughed loudly.
By the time Oetsu, Kirio, Shunsui, Kisuke, Isshin, and the others walked in, this was the scene they found—
A black-haired teenager acting like a thug boss, mercilessly bullying a whole crowd of zanpakuto ladies.
"Hey, Kisuke… you sure this guy is really a Shinigami? Because I'm getting a feeling he's way worse than any Hollow I've seen."
Oetsu glared at Cole, face dark.
This damn human had not only demolished his Phoenix Palace, he was now bullying his manifested zanpakuto on top of it.
If Cole really were a Hollow, his entire Hollow personality would definitely be classified as "perversion and abuse."
Kisuke withdrew his gaze and coughed twice in embarrassment.
Even he didn't know how to defend Cole anymore.
How could he be going after zanpakuto too!?
Grinding his silver teeth, Oetsu turned to his personal guard and the manifested zanpakuto he'd forged.
"Come over here, all of you. With us here, we won't let that brat bully you any longer."
But to his surprise, the dozens of beautiful zanpakuto ladies didn't rush to his side immediately.
Instead, they actually hesitated.
Oetsu: "???"
Tokie cleared her throat softly, her cheeks reddening as she mumbled,
"Sir, that human boy said he'd take us to the Human World. He said there are lots of delicious food and fun things there…"
Oetsu: "???"
Nozomi chimed in happily,
"Sir, I want to go to the Human World too. There are so, so many stuffed dolls there."
Saiko added,
"I heard there are lots of beautiful clothes in the Human World. I want to go have a look and buy some."
Mera drawled lazily,
"Sir, we're doing this to protect you too, you know. This way he won't hit you again."
Oetsu was completely dumbstruck.
He hadn't even been knocked flying for half an hour yet, and his zanpakuto had already betrayed him?
Rukia lowered her head in shame.
Just a moment ago, she had personally watched how Cole used his flowery words to swindle these naive zanpakuto girls.
There was no way they could withstand such smooth-talking.
Oetsu's face turned purple as he stared daggers at Cole.
"You brat… what did you say to my swords!?"
Cole raised an eyebrow.
After absorbing the last chunk of the palace structure, he stood up and leveled his golden staff at Oetsu.
"Hey, dancing-and-singing uncle, if you keep talking to me that rudely, I'll hang you from the Soul King's Inner Sanctum, got it?"
Oetsu flinched.
"Don't you dare do anything crazy, brat! I'm a member of the Royal Guard! If you lay hands on me, that's the same as betraying the Soul Society!"
He was honestly terrified of Cole now.
This infuriating human kid treated beating him up like child's play.
His strength was downright inhuman.
"Stop trying to shove titles on me, old man. I'm not impressed."
Cole didn't care in the slightest.
He stepped once, and in a flash, appeared right in front of Oetsu.
Oetsu nearly had a heart attack, convinced Cole was about to smack him into the dirt with that staff again.
But this time, Cole had no intention of hitting him.
Instead, he pulled out a zanpakuto.
"Quit spacing out. Forge the soul of this blade for me. Give her the ability to manifest freely."
The zanpakuto in his hand was Sode no Shirayuki— slim and elegant, her blade exuding a faint white chill.
It was as if she'd heard Cole's words.
The most beautiful zanpakuto in the Soul Society began to hum joyfully along the length of her blade.
(End of Chapter)
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