Before long, a purple-haired man clad in the black robes of a Soul Reaper, tall and imposing with a Zanpakutō gripped in his hand, appeared at the far end of the chaotic street.
It was Ito Kai.
This time, however, Yekawa did not retreat. Instead, he activated Sonído and surged forward.
"Whoosh!"
With a flash of distorted space, Yekawa appeared directly behind Ito Kai and thrust his blade forward.
Ito Kai instantly parried with his Zanpakutō, sparks bursting forth as steel met steel, then followed with a sharp downward counter-slash aimed at Yekawa's face.
Yekawa twisted his core and leaned backward, narrowly dodging the strike. Using the momentum, he delivered a powerful kick that sent Ito Kai skidding backward across the ground.
Immediately after, Yekawa raised his left hand and fired dozens of black-and-red energy spheres in rapid succession, reducing the surrounding mud houses into dust and rubble it was Cero!
Faced with the violent barrage, Ito Kai repeatedly used Shunpō, moving so swiftly that his afterimages blurred into streaks of shadow.
In the next instant, the crumbling mud houses that had been obliterated by Cero quietly returned to their original state.
This was not the real Rukongai.
This was Ito Kai's inner world.
"Hado Number Four Byakurai!"
Ito Kai pointed forward, and a white bolt of lightning erupted from his fingertip, slicing through the air toward Yekawa.
Yekawa answered with another Cero, the two attacks colliding midair and dispersing in a burst of Reiatsu.
"So the Eleventh Division really can use Kidō when they want to," Yekawa muttered. "And that Byakurai was well executed."
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
Their Zanjutsu exchange escalated rapidly, the sounds of steel crashing echoing endlessly through the inner world.
Both sustained injuries during the exchange, yet the difference was stark Ito Kai's wounds accumulated steadily, while Yekawa's injuries vanished almost the moment they appeared, restored by High-Speed Regeneration.
Realizing that pure swordsmanship alone could not defeat Yekawa, Ito Kai abruptly leapt backward and raised his Zanpakutō overhead.
"Fight to the death… Kamikaze Maru!"
The blade in his hand transformed, its form stretching and reshaping into a long dark spear wrapped in roaring winds.
Without hesitation, Ito Kai lunged once more.
"Hahahaha! Now this is more like it!"
Yekawa laughed, flicking his Asauchi as dark-golden lightning surged and coiled around the blade, colliding violently with the wind-wreathed spear.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
"Kamikaze Style: First Form Sevenfold Gale Slaughter!"
Ito Kai thrust his spear seven times in rapid succession. Seven violent wind vortexes erupted forward, tearing through the air like grinding storms.
Unfazed, Yekawa swung his blade.
Thunder roared.
A massive lightning arc burst forth
It was Thunderclap Slash.
Now empowered by his evolution, this Thunderclap Slash far surpassed the one that had slain the half-serpent Adjuchas. The lightning arc cleaved through all seven hurricanes in a single sweep.
"Pfft!"
The raging lightning carved a terrifying wound across Ito Kai's body, splitting flesh and muscle from his left shoulder down to his waist, exposing bone beneath.
Yet Ito Kai did not fall.
Ignoring what should have been a fatal injury, he continued pressing forward, refusing to yield.
Still, Yekawa could clearly sense that Ito Kai's movements were slowing.
"Even within an inner world… injuries still affect the user's condition," Yekawa murmured.
"Kamikaze Style: Second Form Wind Dragon Roar!"
Ito Kai gripped his spear with both hands and swung it in a wide arc.
Amid shrieking winds, a massive dragon formed from compressed air itself surged toward Yekawa, roaring with destructive force.
This was Ito Kai's killing move.
Yekawa raised his blade horizontally. At its tip, black-red Reiatsu intertwined with dark-golden lightning, condensing into a violently unstable sphere.
"Gran Rey Cero."
The dual-colored Gran Rey Cero erupted forward, its power tearing apart space itself.
This was a technique only wielded by Arrancar of Espada class or Menos of Vasto Lorde caliber in the original world.
Yet Yekawa, through abnormal evolution, had forcibly mastered it.
The Gran Rey Cero pierced straight through the wind dragon, erasing it instantly, and continued onward, engulfing Ito Kai or rather, Kamikaze Maru completely.
When the explosion faded, nothing remained.
The instant Ito Kai vanished, Yekawa felt a dizzying pull, and the world around him shattered like glass.
The next moment, he stood once again in the Human World.
After his second battle with Ito Kai, Yekawa had gained a clear understanding of his current power.
His Reiatsu was now far superior to Ito Kai's Vice-Captain-level pressure, but in combat skill and refined Zanjutsu, he was still inferior.
That was precisely why the battle had lasted so long. Had their skills been equal, Ito Kai would not have survived more than a few exchanges.
Yet this was inevitable.
In his previous life, Yekawa had been nothing more than an office worker. Part of his combat instincts came from his growth as a Hollow, but most of his technical skill came from Ito Kai's memories.
In other words, he was still imitating.
He could not surpass the original so easily.
"If only I could train in Soul Society itself…"
But as a Hollow, entering Soul Society would mean being hunted by every Shinigami in existence.
Lost in thought, Yekawa suddenly paused.
A spark of inspiration ignited in his mind.
There was… a way.
...
Half a month later, deep within the Great Hollow Forest.
"You… a so-called Vasto Lorde, not challenging Baraggan Louisenbairn in Las Noches, but instead coming to trouble me, an Adjuchas?"
A centaur-shaped Adjuchas spoke indignantly, glaring at Yekawa.
"…Vasto Lorde again?" Yekawa blinked in surprise.
Yet the misunderstanding was natural after all, what kind of Gillian could obliterate an Adjuchas with a single strike?
Yekawa smiled faintly, offered no reply, and swung his blade.
The centaur Adjuchas fell instantly, dying with regret in its eyes.
Yekawa activated Soul Eater and absorbed the Adjuchas completely.
But the process did not end there.
A segment of the centipede-like armor connected to Yekawa's mask on his back suddenly split apart. The mask wriggled and seamlessly restored itself.
The detached centipede segment hit the ground
And expanded violently.
In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a ten-meter-long centipede Hollow, bearing a stark white mask covering its razor-sharp mouthparts.
This was a Hollow ability Yekawa had gained long ago but never used Body Fragmentation Doppelgänger.
Due to his former weakness, he had been unable to employ it.
Now, he finally could.
The clone and the main body shared one soul and one consciousness.
They stared at each other in silence.
"…Looking at myself like this is truly strange."
Yekawa sensed the clone's Reiatsu.
It had unmistakably reached the Adjuchas tier, possessing nearly twenty percent of his main body's spiritual pressure even surpassing his former pre-evolution state.
However, to preserve his core power, Yekawa had not infused the clone with abilities such as Flash Lightning or Camo.
Thus, it only possessed basic Hollow techniques like Sonído and Cero.
A blank Adjuchas.
Yet that was more than sufficient.
Yekawa raised his right hand and sliced across the void.
Space tore open like flesh, revealing the pitch-black expanse of Hueco Mundo beyond.
The doppelgänger leaped forward, vanishing into the garganta leading toward the Human World.
Then, the void closed.
Yekawa stood alone once more.
And his true plan… had begun.