After Itō Kai's Reiatsu completely dissipated, Raizen Kō's own spiritual pressure was no longer obstructed in the slightest. It surged into the Asauchi like a flood breaking through a shattered dam.
Suddenly, Raizen Kō felt a powerful dizziness overtake him.
When he looked up again, the surrounding scenery had changed drastically.
This was no longer the Forest of Menos.
It was not even Hueco Mundo.
Low, earthen houses lined narrow, chaotic streets. Tattered cloth banners fluttered in stagnant air. The atmosphere was heavy with despair and poverty.
Raizen Kō's mind went blank.
"This is… the West District of Rukongai. District Seventy-Seven?"
He instantly recognized it.
The scene before him matched the memories buried deep within Itō Kai's soul.
"Am I… in Soul Society?"
No—he immediately corrected himself.
"This is the inner world. This is Itō Kai's inner world."
Before he could process further, a tall, imposing purple-haired youth appeared at the far end of the ruined street.
He wore the black robes of a Shinigami.
At his side rested an Asauchi.
His presence alone distorted the flow of Reishi around him.
"Itō Kai…?"
Raizen Kō spoke tentatively.
The purple-haired man did not respond.
Instead, he rushed forward in silence, unsheathing his Asauchi in a single, fluid motion. From dozens of meters away, he unleashed a powerful horizontal slash, tearing through the air with compressed Reishi.
In the next instant
He was already three steps before Raizen Kō, delivering a killing strike.
"So fast… is this Shunpo?!"
Raizen Kō reacted purely on instinct.
Lightning erupted along his right arm as he barely managed to block.
"PFFF!"
Crimson blood sprayed violently.
His massive right arm was severed cleanly in a single stroke.
Raizen Kō immediately activated Sonído, retreating several dozen meters in a blur. His tail wrapped around the severed limb and dragged it back to the wound.
As the writhing flesh began reattaching
The purple-haired Shinigami attacked again.
The Asauchi in his hand transformed instantly into a pitch-black spear, its form twisting unnaturally.
With a casual swing, a violent gust of compressed Reishi erupted outward.
The nearly reattached arm was completely blown apart.
"Damn it… what terrifying speed!"
Raizen Kō roared in pain, chaining Sonído repeatedly until he escaped the spear's attack range.
The wound writhed violently.
This time, his right arm regenerated entirely.
Because the limb had been destroyed rather than reattached, the regeneration should have drained enormous Reiatsu.
Yet Raizen Kō felt no real depletion.
This confirmed it
He was truly inside Itō Kai's inner world.
But Raizen Kō clearly remembered Bleach canon:
Being killed inside a Zanpakutō's inner world meant true death.
Seeing the purple-haired man charging again, intent on dismemberment, Raizen Kō shouted without thinking:
"I can help you find Kasumiōji Yunchika!"
The man froze.
He clutched his head and dropped to one knee.
"My wife… Unokawa…!"
"I am Itō Kai… no… I am Kamikazemaru!"
Raizen Kō watched in silence as the figure convulsed between identities, spiritual pressure fluctuating wildly.
After a long moment, the man slowly rose.
"I am Kamikazemaru… born of my master's obsession… to find Unokawa…"
With a wave of his hand
Raizen Kō's vision blurred again.
When he regained consciousness, he found himself back in the Forest of Menos.
"I'm back…"
Though he had seemingly spent a long time inside, less than a second had passed in reality.
A chill ran through Raizen Kō's core.
"The power of a Vice-Captain-level Shinigami… is truly this overwhelming."
"No… I cannot grow complacent. I must become stronger."
Calming his spirit, Raizen Kō reviewed the encounter.
The experience had not been meaningless.
He now possessed Itō Kai's complete memories of training, battle instincts, and Zanjutsu theory.
Raising his left hand, he pointed toward a massive Menos tree.
"Hadō #4: Byakurai!"
He called the incantation and circulated Reiryoku as remembered.
One second passed.
Two seconds.
Thirty seconds.
Nothing happened.
"…So a Hollow truly cannot use Shinigami Kidō."
Raizen Kō was not disappointed.
What delighted him far more was the Asauchi in his right hand now transformed into a colossal Zanpakutō over ten meters long, perfectly suited to his Hollow physique.
"I must be the only Hollow in existence to wield a Zanpakutō… without becoming an Arrancar."
The previous inner world encounter had granted him permission to use this blade.
He now possessed all of Itō Kai's Zanjutsu memories.
Only experience remained.
This was swordsmanship approaching Captain-class.
With mastery, his strength would rise explosively.
He lightly swung the blade.
A massive crescent of blade light flashed.
A Menos tree over a hundred meters tall, with a trunk wider than five meters, was severed cleanly in half.
"RUMBLE!"
The tree collapsed, shaking the forest and crushing countless shrubs.
"Worthy indeed of Nimaiya Ōetsu's creation… what a divine blade."
The Zanpakutō gleamed, restored from its chipped state to pristine perfection, adapting naturally to his size.
Raizen Kō examined it like a child with a treasured relic.
"ROAR!"
Seven Gillians surrounded him, their roars shaking the forest.
Raizen Kō sighed.
"Just mindless Gillians again… Can't I get a real opponent? At least an Adjuchas."
He raised his Zanpakutō.
Seven slashes.
Seven flashes of light.
Seven Gillians split cleanly apart.
Soul Eater activated.
A dark golden vortex erupted from his tail, devouring them completely.
Six months had passed since he acquired the blade.
His Reiatsu was now four to five times greater than when he entered the Forest of Menos.
Ordinary Gillians could no longer survive a single exchange.
And Raizen Kō…
Was no longer merely a Giant Hollow.