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The scene shifted.
First Division, administrative office.
"Captain-Commander… if I'm guessing right, that fight took place in Hueco Mundo, didn't it?" Looking at the endless white desert on the screen, the old Western-style lieutenant, Sasakibe Chōjirō, felt cold sweat sliding down his neck.
What was going on?
Why was Kuchiki Byakuya in Hueco Mundo?
And that dying Arrancar—who'd been raging uselessly from start to finish—who was that supposed to be?
For a moment, Chōjirō's thoughts were a complete mess.
This sudden battle had revealed far too many unknowns.
"Chōjirō, your guess is correct. But this Hueco Mundo is completely different from the one I remember," the Captain-Commander said solemnly, seated cross-legged before the wooden desk.
With just one glance at the iconic white sands, he'd already made his judgment.
But…
What puzzled him were the blue skies, drifting clouds, and that towering white palace rising in the distance.
Hueco Mundo's environment…
Why was it nothing like what he remembered?
"What do you mean?" Chōjirō asked, confused.
Though he was as old as the Captain-Commander himself, he had never once set foot outside Soul Society, so he had no idea what the original Hueco Mundo was supposed to look like.
"Hueco Mundo should have been an endless abyss of darkness—hellish and barren."
"But now it's undergone an unimaginable transformation. It's practically as developed as Soul Society."
"Don't you want to know why?"
His long white eyebrows drooped slightly. Every syllable the Captain-Commander spoke was heavy with unease.
It was bizarre.
The wasteland that should have been motionless and dead had somehow developed to this extent right under his nose.
His intuition—sharper than anyone's—picked up the faint smell of danger.
"What should we do now?"
Chōjirō's gaze flicked sideways.
Seeing the Captain-Commander's face subtly pale with worry, a bead of cold sweat ran down his cheek.
He couldn't even remember the last time he'd seen the old man look like this.
Things were getting serious.
"Go. Contact the Technology Development Bureau, and get in touch with Kuchiki Byakuya immediately. We must confirm the truth," the Captain-Commander ordered with strict authority.
He knew perfectly well—
These video segments… whether the earlier ones or the ones now… were almost certainly not recent events.
Most likely they were fragments of the future.
Even so…
He still held onto a sliver of hope.
If this video turned out to be some kind of prank, then there would be nothing to fear.
"Yes, Captain-Commander!"
Chōjirō bowed.
Just as he was about to turn and leave, the video continued to play.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
"What did you do to me?! Why isn't my ability working?! On what grounds do you reject my love?!"
With each hysterical scream, the cursed eyes above Zommari's forehead flashed with violet light, opening and closing frantically as he exhausted every last ounce of strength trying to control Byakuya's body.
But—
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
No matter how sharp the black curse marks were, they couldn't shake the shield of Dankū in the slightest. Every violent impact produced nothing but a dull explosion of sound.
"Give up, Arrancar."
Byakuya stood with one hand on his blade, his white haori fluttering gently behind him.
He lifted his eyes, casting an indifferent, almost contemptuous glance toward his enemy.
"Don't you understand?"
"A monkey reaching for the moon in water sees only a reflection. Your desperate attempt to surpass me will sink just the same."
His voice was calm and icy.
Before the last syllable even faded, Byakuya vanished. In a flicker of movement, he appeared beside Zommari's body.
"Urgh—!"
A muffled sound escaped Zommari's throat.
He looked down stiffly. In the reflection of his weakening curse-eyes, he saw a massive, deep sword wound carved across his torso.
The flesh tore open.
Blood gushed like a fountain.
His body was about to split in two.
A sharp inhale broke the silence.
Chōjirō froze mid-step, stunned by the brutality on the screen.
Byakuya had made a single swing of his blade—just one—and instantly killed an Adjuchas-class Arrancar.
When had his power grown to this level?
"…Hmph."
Even the Captain-Commander's pupils tightened. A man who'd weathered centuries of storms was still taken aback by the elegance and decisiveness of that strike.
Byakuya's calm ruthlessness eased some of the worry weighing on the old man's heart.
"Captain-Commander… do we still need to question him now?" Chōjirō asked.
"No."
The Captain-Commander shook his head without hesitation.
His tone softened slightly with approval.
"Even if he appeared somewhere he shouldn't have, Kuchiki Byakuya still fulfilled a Soul Reaper captain's duty."
"His place on that list is well deserved."
With that, he offered his highest recognition.
—
The Human World.Karakura Town outskirts.
On the eave of a low building near a street corner, a black cat lazily groomed its paw.
"Tsk, tsk…"
Golden eyes gleamed as Yoruichi watched Byakuya's clean, one-strike kill replay on the screen. In her feline form, she revealed a distinctly human smirk.
"Who would've thought…"
"That brat Byakuya used to run around in split-crotch pants in front of me, and now he's grown this strong. Old man Ginrei would've been proud."
She sighed with genuine emotion.
Like everyone else, she had seen the ranking video.
At first, she'd been skeptical about Byakuya placing on the list.
With that stiff face and his usual power level, he didn't seem like someone who'd land in the top fifteen of the Soul Reaper world.
But after watching that fight…
Her doubts vanished completely. She acknowledged his strength fully.
"Speaking of which…" She raised a paw to smooth out some messy fur. "As Byakuya's teacher, I'd better show up somewhere in the top ten, right?"
She normally didn't care about fame or glory.
But the ranking video had stirred her competitiveness. She genuinely hoped to see herself appear later.
—
Hueco Mundo.
Las Noches was dead silent.
As Zommari's body faded away in the video, time itself seemed to stop.
"G-gulp…"
Yammy swallowed hard.
Withdrawing his fist from the cracked wall, he stared in disbelief.
"Zommari… was killed by a Soul Reaper? That's impossible."
Fear and shock churned in his chest.
At first, he'd had the numbers advantage and felt confident enough to curse and mock the Soul Reapers.
But now—
His heart had almost stopped beating. He no longer dared to doubt anything.
"Unbelievable… a member of the Espada actually got cut down."
Behind his dark bangs, Ulquiorra remained expressionless, though he too felt a subtle tremor inside.
Hollows lacked bonds between one another.
But witnessing a comrade erased before his eyes still made something in the black-winged demon quiver.
And…
He completely accepted Byakuya's strength.
"..."
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