Kazumichi Asayuki drifted through the hunting grounds like a wandering specter, her steps light, her presence unhurried, yet everywhere she passed, lives quietly vanished. One isolated noble scion after another fell to her blade, harvested without resistance.
All the while, her gaze swept calmly across the battlefield, observing the immobilized Gillians trapped under the combined suppression of the Four Directions Realm and the lingering vibration shockwaves.
"So this is Ito Makoto's Zanpakutō ability? How intriguing…"
Ahead, several noble scions moving together caught sight of her elegant figure approaching through the mist, and relief flooded their faces.
"You are the Kasumioji Clan Head!"
"Xia Dalulu Head, what is happening to this barrier? This isn't what was described we can't leave at all!" the young man leading the group asked anxiously.
"There is no need for panic," Kazumichi Asayuki replied with a gentle smile. "I will open the barrier and let you depart."
She casually flicked the silver-white long blade in her hand.
In an instant, streams of liquid silver poured from the blade's surface like flowing mercury, spreading outward and swallowing hundreds of meters in every direction.
Where the mercury passed, all motion ceased.
The noble scions froze mid-expression. The immobilized Gillians halted completely. Even pebbles disturbed by earlier tremors stopped in mid-fall, suspended unnaturally in the air.
It was as though time itself had been paused within that silver domain.
Kazumichi Asayuki walked leisurely among them, her expression serene. One by one, she inserted the silver-white blade into their chests. From the hilt, fleshy tendrils writhed outward, burrowing deep into their bodies.
Spiritual pressure. Flesh. Blood.
All of it was devoured completely.
When the final noble in that cluster was consumed, the blade quieted. The tendrils retracted smoothly back into the hilt, leaving not even residue behind.
"There is so much true blood here, my darling. Take your time and savor it," she murmured, licking her lips as a faint crimson sheen flickered within her pale violet pupils.
Elsewhere, Ito Makoto appeared to be locked in combat with the freed Wonderweiss.
In truth, he was carefully guiding the unstable Adjuchas toward the Hueco Mundo rupture where Fleur lingered.
"Xia Dalulu Head, please spare me! I won't tell anyone!"
At that moment, Kazumichi Asayuki, surrounded by drifting mercury, chased a small, delicate girl clad in a Shinigami uniform. The scene resembled a cat leisurely tormenting a cornered mouse.
Of the hundred participants who had entered the hunt, only this girl remained alive.
"Poor little Chie. Don't struggle," Kazumichi Asayuki said softly, a trace of madness surfacing in her flawless expression. "Offer the true blood within you and nourish my darling."
The girl Yano Masahiko's earlier companion ran desperately, glancing back with terror in her eyes. But resistance was meaningless. The mercury surged forward, enveloped her body, and in a breath, she vanished entirely.
Only her uniform drifted downward from empty air.
As Kazumichi Asayuki completed her slaughter, she turned and found herself face-to-face with Wonderweiss and Ito Makoto emerging from the steel portal.
"ROAR!"
The moment Wonderweiss saw her, he erupted in fury. Dozens of massive white arms sprouted from his back and lashed forward simultaneously.
Kazumichi Asayuki did not flinch. She raised the silver-white blade.
The mercury surged skyward, engulfing Wonderweiss. The enormous hands slowed the instant they touched the silver domain slower… slower… until they froze completely.
The suspended mercury condensed into a massive blade and cleaved downward.
All of Wonderweiss's extended arms were severed at once.
"ROAR!"
He howled in agony. Yet the severed limbs writhed and regenerated rapidly under High-Speed Regeneration. When they reformed, however, his spiritual pressure had noticeably diminished.
Ito Makoto's eyes narrowed.
"A temporal stagnation ability…"
Kazumichi Asayuki's base spiritual pressure had been merely high Vice-Captain level roughly comparable to his manifested body. Yet when she wielded this blade, her Reiatsu surged to true Captain-class, even surpassing the level he reached after borrowing thirty percent of his main body's power.
The mercury spread again like parasitic worms, pressing toward Wonderweiss.
Ito Makoto no longer held back.
He drew thirty percent of his true body's spiritual pressure.
His aura exploded upward, stabilizing at Captain level.
"Annihilation God Second Style: Rift Seal."
He rotated his blade lightly. Dense gray-black mist poured from the tip, forming three interlocking circles that collided head-on with the advancing mercury.
He could not allow the Yamamoto sealing vessel he had just secured to be destroyed by this madwoman.
"Bang!"
The impact tore through the battlefield. Shockwaves rippled outward, pulverizing the already-subdued Gillians into spiritual fragments under the collision of two Captain-class forces.
Kazumichi Asayuki stared at Ito Makoto, genuine surprise flickering across her face. Her previous strike could have slain any opponent below Captain level without exception yet he had blocked it effortlessly.
"Ito Fourth Seat," she said coldly, her expression suddenly righteous, "as a Shinigami, you dare collude with a Menos Grande? Are you not afraid of the judgment of Central 46?"
"Then, Xia Dalulu Head," Ito Makoto replied evenly, "for deliberately orchestrating a Menos incursion and secretly devouring noble heirs with a Bakudō Blade are you not afraid of Central 46's judgment?"
"If so, it would be my honor as a mere commoner to share a Muken cell with the Kasumioji Clan Head."
Her indignant mask cracked. For a heartbeat she froze then covered her lips and laughed softly.
"I did not expect the Fourth Seat to know so much about the Kasumioji Clan. You even recognize Bakuyōtō."
In that instant of distraction, Ito Makoto seized his chance. He lifted Wonderweiss and hurled him toward the rift where Fleur hovered in midair.
Fleur opened its enormous maw and released a beam of light. Wonderweiss was drawn upward within it, ascending steadily.
Moments later, both Hollow and conduit vanished into the void. The Hueco Mundo rupture sealed behind them with a low tremor.
When Wonderweiss and Fleur descended upon the white sands of Hueco Mundo, they found someone already waiting.
A humanoid Menos Grande stood beneath the endless white sky black eyes, black hair, composed and silent.
He looked at Wonderweiss calmly.
"Allow me to introduce myself," he said.
"My name is Yekawa. From this day forward… I am your King."