"Captain Aizen…"
"You must be really disappointed, huh?"
"If it were you standing there trading harsh words with that Monk…"
"I'm sure the dialogue would be way more artistic, and the sense of style would be completely maxed out!"
Gin Ichimaru's eyelids twitched as he deliberately looked upward toward the empty seat, a sly grin tugging up the corners of his mouth.
In truth—
Forget everyone else.
Even he himself, at the very moment Yhwach appeared, had felt an indescribable wave of disappointment!
It was like this:
You pull your pants down,
you've already got a whole stack of tissues ready,
you're about to open your favorite spicy app to reward yourself—
And then…
You realize you clicked into the "Chengdu Panda Documentary Zone" instead.
That instant, soul-crushing deflation—
That was exactly Gin's state of mind right now.
And he was convinced—
Most of the other viewers felt the same way.
Because…
In this world—
When it comes to flaunting, bluffing, and putting on a stylish show—
The king of all villains is still:
Aizen!!!
Unquestionably the one with the most charisma!!!
His words are razor-sharp, every sentence stabbing straight into people's hearts.
His provocations are always maxed out on menace.
Elegant, artistic, dripping with style—
That is the unshakable impression Aizen has carved into everyone's mind!
No matter which side you stand on—
At least when it comes to talking and posturing,
the Gotei captains have fallen into his traps over and over again, and can't help but admit defeat!!!
By comparison—
Yhwach's performance after two consecutive appearances in the video—
Leaves only two impressions:
cold-blooded and brutal.
To be fair—
His presence and aura are truly overwhelming.
No one would ever doubt the power of the pure-blooded Quincy King,
nor underestimate that terrifying title.
But…
When you put him next to Aizen—
Something just feels off.
The style just doesn't match up!
He's way behind in the "cool factor"!!!
Which is exactly why Gin feels—
The fact that Aizen never made it up to the Royal Palace in the original future
is a huge regret.
Never mind whether he could actually win.
Just imagining him standing across from the Monk,
trading barbed lines and lofty declarations—
That alone would've been a feast for the audience!!!
Aizen's response, however, was calm as ever.
"Gin, you're mistaken."
"You shouldn't demand that battle itself possess aesthetics.
Nor should you insist that death must be artistic."
"Battle only becomes meaningful… when the strength of both sides is roughly equal."
As he said this—
Aizen's gaze drifted toward the right side of the video,
to where Yhwach's figure had just landed.
He gave the slightest shake of his head and commented, without much interest:
"I do not believe that any of the wild claims the Quincy King just made…
will actually be fulfilled."
"On the contrary—
that kind of empty bluffing will only bring him closer to his own death."
To tell the truth—
Even someone as powerful and as self-assured as Aizen—
As he stared at the Monk on the screen, and at that giant calligraphy brush in his hand—
Through that instinctive perception that only exists between true powerhouses…
He felt it.
Danger.
Trouble.
This opponent would be extremely hard to deal with.
It was completely different from facing the Head Captain—
There, he could still rely on external factors—
for example, having the Arrancar Wonderweiss neutralize Ryūjin Jakka—
to counter the old man's Zanpakutō.
But when it came to Hyōsube Ichibē—
The true leader of the Shinigami side.
The administrator of the world,
the one who holds those three heavy "golden eggs" of reality in his hands—
Right now, Aizen was still only in his "Shinigami state."
Even with the Hōgyoku already fused into him,
and even with an evolutionary path paved ahead—
He still didn't have absolute confidence that he could defeat the Monk
in a one-on-one duel.
Fortunately—
Thanks to this ranking video—
So long as this "clash of leaders" continued to expose the trump cards of both sides—
Aizen, standing off to the side as a mere viewer—
Could simply sit back and watch.
He could observe everything from afar,
collect information in advance,
and calmly fill in each piece of the puzzle.
In the future—
He would then have the confidence
to go up against either Yhwach…
or the Monk.
That—
Was the reason why, despite feeling disappointed,
Aizen's heart remained perfectly calm,
unhurried, and utterly composed!!!
—
At the same time—
On the transparent light screen—
The battle footage continued to play—
And sure enough—
Aizen had been right.
Although both combatants were "acting cool"—
The outcome…
Was clearly Yhwach being one-sidedly beaten down!!!
"Seal—!!"
Ignoring Yhwach completely, still turning his back to the camera—
The Monk swept his brush in mid-air,
drawing out an enormous Seal character.
Then—
He suddenly turned around.
There was no warning.
No prior stance.
Not even a hint of spiritual pressure being gathered.
"I've already told you…"
"Don't casually shout my name."
The moment that impatient sentence left his lips—
RUMBLE—!!!
The camera jerked backward as though it were being sucked away.
All the reishi flowing in the surroundings—
As though subjected to Ichibē's will—
Began to surge violently.
Clouds boiled and churned.
The void twisted.
A massive hand, too big to fully fit into the frame,
slowly formed in front of everyone's eyes—
big enough to cover the entire sky.
As that hand descended—
It sucked away all the air in its path,
forcing the surrounding space into absolute vacuum!
At the same time—
BOOOOM!!!
The gigantic palm slammed downward—
Shattering the very air,
driving a roaring shockwave straight toward the screen—
Yhwach's figure,
along with the scene itself,
was smashed into pieces in one blow!!!
"BOOM!!!"
The immense pressure fully materialized
into bright white energy that exploded outward in ten-thousandfold shockwaves—
And reality, outside the video,
once again suffered the backlash at the exact same time!!!
Not only did the transparent light curtain
get crushed into fragments on the spot—
Countless viewers—
Before they could even react,
before they had time to dodge—
Were swept up by that white pressure
and blasted into the air like a dark cloud of human shapes.
"Uwaaah—!!"
"Help! Someone grab me!!"
"Urgh… my insides… my organs feel like they just burst! Damn you, Monk!!"
"What the hell is this technique? Kidō? No way—
there's no Kidō that strong!!!"
"This is an indiscriminate AOE that covers the entire world!
Who's supposed to survive something like this?!"
In that instant—
The world of Bleach plunged into absolute chaos.
Since the very first day the Ranking Video appeared—
There had never been chaos on this scale.
Shinigami, Hollows, humans, pure-blood Quincies…
Every group of viewers,
regardless of status or combat power—
All suffered damage without distinction.
The terrifying part was—
Some viewers whose strength was on the weaker side—
Were directly slapped into concussions.
Some vomited blood on the spot and fainted.
Some blacked out with severe internal injuries.
"Damn it…"
"As expected, the further down the ranking we go,
the more broken these skills become…
It's completely beyond comprehension now…"
Grimmjow ground his teeth,
his sharp predatory fangs clenched tight,
his body trembling uncontrollably.
Just now—
Even though he hadn't been knocked out—
The materialized shockwave had still slammed into him head-on—
Like a huge palm smacking him across the face.
He had been physically treated to a full-power slap from the Monk.
Taken completely off guard,
Grimmjow felt ashamed and furious.
When had he, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez,
ever suffered such humiliation?!
He was clearly destined to evolve into a Vasto Lorde in the future…
Yet in front of this bald monk—
He was nothing more than a little leopard,
slapped around whenever the other man felt like it.
How the hell was he supposed to accept that?!
And the ones who were just as displeased—
Were the other Espada and all the Arrancar present.
"Lady Harribel…"
"My chest… it feels like it's been completely flattened… uwaaa…"
Mila Rose's lips were stained with blood as she cried miserably.
The woman who had always been the very image of
"beautiful face, explosive figure, curves in all the right places"—
Now looked like a balloon that had leaked out all its air.
Her once proud curves had collapsed inward by a whole three centimeters.
The materialized pressure had smashed straight into her chest,
cratering it inward.
Honestly—
The fact that she could still talk at all meant
her luck was already pretty good.
Beside her—
The other two Fracción, Sung-Sung and Apache,
weren't any better off.
One had a face swollen like a pig's head.
The other had a Hollow mask riddled with cracks,
looking as if her skull was one hit away from exploding.
In short—
The fate of the three of them
was miserable without exception.
They'd taken a disaster for no reason at all,
and came close to dying before Yhwach himself did.
Luckily—
Their leader—the forcibly-recruited follower, Tier Harribel—
That magnificent chest of hers
was still standing tall and unshaken.
Relying on her Vasto Lorde-class reiatsu,
combined with the resilience of her true shark-like body—
Harribel had come out completely unscathed.
But seeing her three subordinates injured so badly—
Her mood, naturally, was very far from good.
Glaring at the shaking screen,
she ground out through clenched teeth:
"Zero Division… I will remember this hatred."
In that moment—
Harribel's loyalty toward Aizen
rose a whole level again,
nearly capping out the scale.
She silently swore—
That in the future,
as soon as an opportunity presented itself—
She would definitely follow the Hōgyoku-fused Aizen up to the Royal Palace—
To settle accounts
with Zero Division and the Monk!!!
—
At the same time—
While the audience cursed and groaned in unison—
Inside the footage, Yhwach's situation
was actually not much better than theirs.
"BOOOOM—!!!"
That enormous hand struck him head-on again—
Violently slapping him away—
Blasting him out of the picture,
so that he disappeared from the frame entirely.
His body seemed to fly all the way to the edge of the world.
Even the camera,
chasing after him at full speed for several seconds,
could only just barely catch the corner of his cloak.
"This is insane…"
"Even the video camera can't fully capture the scale of this technique anymore!"
"What kind of ability is this?
His very first move is already an ultimate finisher-level skill!!!"
Inside the small shop—
The Urahara trio had been shocked to the core.
Especially Urahara Kisuke—
Beneath the shadow of his green-and-white striped hat,
his expression was one of utter disbelief.
With his vast knowledge,
and his many journeys into Hueco Mundo and beyond—
He was essentially a walking encyclopedia.
And yet—
Even the Kidō barrier he'd set up inside his own store
had been shattered by the backlash from this strike.
To this extent—
He still couldn't understand the nature of this technique.
"This isn't Kidō…"
Tessai, finally managing to steady his breathing,
spoke with a heavy look in his eyes,
his gaze blazing with a rare fervor.
"This is a concept and an ability that lies beyond Kidō…
It should be the legendary Inner Kidō."
As a former Grand Kidō Chief—
Tessai's cultivation in the field of Kidō
was deep enough to reach the heavens.
Naturally, he knew of certain secret rumors.
Though he wasn't absolutely sure
whether this Thousand-Mile Heaven-Shattering Palm
was one of those Inner Kidō techniques—
He knew one thing for certain:
If even he had never learned it,
never even seen it—
Then its rarity was beyond question.
Which meant, of course—
Its power would also be unimaginable.
A skill like this shaking the world—
Was absolutely no surprise.
However—
This was still only the beginning!!!
In the video—
Just as the camera finally caught up
to Yhwach's body tumbling through the air—
The viewers were stunned to find—
The same sequence began to replay again!!!
"Yo—"
High up against the firmament—
In the zone where the violent winds were most concentrated—
The Monk's imposing figure once again stepped out of nowhere.
His white sleeves billowed.
He raised his hand again.
In front of the eyes of the entire world—
He swung his palm down yet another time!!!
This time, from top to bottom—
The Thousand-Mile Heaven-Shattering Palm
cut straight through the sea of clouds—
Ripping apart the sky—
Punching out over ten expanding rings of air pressure,
each like the shockwave of a nuclear explosion.
Yhwach's body—
Was ruthlessly crushed by the descending palm—
His whole form beaten down from tens of thousands of meters in the air—
Like a mere fly slapped out of the sky.
Only after finishing all this—
Did the Monk's figure appear properly in the center of the shot.
As he fell with a carefree grin,
spinning leisurely toward the ground,
he looked at the camera sideways and spoke:
"The Thousand-Mile Heaven-Shattering Palm…
Whatever it hits, it doesn't bother picking and choosing—
it just knocks it straight a thousand miles away."
Those words—
Through the broadcast of the ranking video—
were transmitted to every corner of reality—
And at that moment—
Yhwach's falling body—
Within ring after ring of white shockwaves—
Looked as if every bone in his body had been shattered,
utterly unable to put up any defense.
The once awe-inspiring King of the Quincy—
In just a few exchanges—
Had been beaten again and again.
Beaten, beaten, and beaten some more.
Brutally toyed with and ravaged by the Monk in every possible way.
Such footage, once aired—
Inevitably triggered a fresh wave of shock.
The audience couldn't help talking all at once:
"Damn it…"
"His Majesty…"
"He doesn't even have a chance to fight back!!!"
"This Zero Division leader… he's a complete monster!!!"
Inside the Ice Palace—
The dazzling chandeliers hanging from the ceiling
had all shattered under the blast.
The huge symbolic throne of the Wandenreich above—
That massive emblem of the Invisible Empire—
Had also been pulverized from direct, frontal impact,
turning into dust that drifted down from the sky.
The hall looked like a wasteland of rubble.
Every pure-blood Quincy present—
Fell into utter despair.
The joy they'd felt moments ago
at seeing Yhwach "return from death" once more—
Was instantly destroyed.
In its place—
One disaster after another piled on,
like a calamity for the ages.
Their hearts sank to rock bottom.
No one knew—
That even more despair was still on its way.
"See?"
"I warned you before—
If you casually shout my name…"
"…you'd better be careful your throat doesn't get crushed,
Yhwach."
The Monk's body flickered—
His speed exceeding even the camera's ability to track.
In the next frame—
He was already above Yhwach.
The smile on his lips turned sinister.
His right hand lifted once more—
"What… what is he trying to do?!"
"Don't tell me he's going to— His Majesty— it's over!!!"
In that instant—
Every pure-blood Quincy became a statue,
frozen by terror.
Their eyes were stretched open so wide
that the blood vessels in their sclera were about to burst.
CRACK—!!!
Under their horrified gazes—
The Monk's fingers dug in—
And with a vicious twist, right in front of the camera,
He—
literally tore and crushed Yhwach's throat apart.
The scene—
Was sickeningly vivid.
The world—
Fell into dead silence.
And at that moment—
The same sentence echoed in everyone's mind:
"The power of Zero Division
surpasses that of the entire Gotei 13 combined."
But—
After watching this particular scene—
The viewers gradually realized another possibility:
The so-called "strength of Zero Division"—
Might very well rest almost entirely
on this one man alone!!!
The others…
Might just be his ornaments.
After all—
In this world, there are extremely, extremely few people—
Who can, without even drawing their Zanpakutō,
instantly kill the King of the Quincy.
(End of Chapter)
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