It was overwhelming.
Where on earth could such a monster have crawled out from?
The moment that monster tore through the sky and earth to reveal itself—in that singular instant—the only emotion felt was helplessness.
Despair? Terror? Fear? Those were laughing matters.
Does a human feel despair while gazing at the clear sky? Do they tremble in terror before a towering mountain? Do they feel fear while looking at the radiant moon?
No. When faced with an existence that cannot be reached, let alone resisted, one feels nothing at all.
One is simply crushed by the weight of it, and even the will to struggle is trampled into the dirt.
At that very moment, when everyone present shared the same thought and prepared to surrender their lives…
"Katsu!!"
It was a roar that rebuked those abandoning their lives; a thunderous shout that jolted their overwhelmed spirits. The surrounding vigilantes and residents shuddered violently and turned their gaze toward the source.
Standing there was a man clad in a mountain of muscle and scars: Yamamoto Shigekuni.
"What do you think you are doing?! Evacuate the people this instant!"
Shigekuni's brow furrowed fiercely as he roared with the intensity of a blazing fire. However, the vigilantes, their bodies already frozen stiff, could only flinch and watch his face.
"B-but…"
"If you do not move now, consider yourselves dead by my hand! Will you die here by my fist, or will you evade that thing and survive?!"
Who could possibly guarantee they could evade *that*?
In the first place, even if they ran, there was no certainty of survival.
But if they stayed still, it was a plain and absolute fact that they would die at Shigekuni's hand.
Driven by that immediate terror, the vigilantes tore their eyes away from the overwhelming reality behind them. Gritting their teeth, they began to move the people.
"This way!! Hurry!!"
"What is that… What the hell is that?!"
"Snap out of it!! If you stay here, you die!"
"Run…? Run where?! How are we supposed to dodge that thing?!"
"Save me! Help meeee!!"
The streets, filled with people trapped in chaos and dread, were a literal screaming hell.
Seeing this, Shigekuni grit his teeth and hurled his haori aside. He sprinted in the opposite direction of the fleeing crowd, toward the gargantuan Hollow slowly approaching.
"Captain Shigekuni!!"
"Run!! I shall handle this place!!"
Relieved from the Hollow's suffocating pressure for a brief moment by the Spiritual Pressure erupting from Shigekuni, the people fled in a frantic panic.
Seeing them go, Shigekuni allowed a hidden, satisfied smirk to graze his lips before turning his head to face the massive Hollow alone.
"…."
Though he didn't show it outwardly, he was just as terrified.
A single claw or toenail was the size of a massive boulder, and the limbs they were attached to were, naturally, far larger than that.
"No matter how vast you are, you are but a mere Hollow. Come! I shall show you that size is not everything!"
Shigekuni stepped forward to first seal the Hollow's movement, thrusting both fists toward the Hollow's leg.
"Sokotsu (Double Bone)!!"
Air exploded along the path of his fists, shaking the nearby buildings.
Then, the moment those fists connected with the Hollow's leg…
BOOM—!!!
With a cataclysmic roar, the entire vicinity was literally scorched and leveled.
Shabby wooden houses lost their forms, reduced to splinters unfit even for firewood. Except for the patch of ground where Shigekuni stood, the surrounding earth was cracked and upturned.
■■■――!!!!
It was a heavy strike so immense that even a Hollow of that size could not ignore it, but…
The matchup was simply too poor.
It was a single blow.
A mere layer of skin.
No matter how strong one was, a human could not topple a mountain with a single punch.
No—to Shigekuni, that line of reasoning didn't matter.
"If one blow is not enough, then I shall strike until you crumble!!"
He never intended to end it with one blow in the first place!
Shigekuni roared as he began to swing his fists with maddening intensity.
The skin was stripped from his knuckles, revealing raw muscle. Blood splattered the ground with every swing. Bone cracked. Yet, he did not stop.
Even the greatest mountain eventually erodes before an endless storm.
Every time Shigekuni's fists connected, the Hollow's leg shattered, crumbled, and turned into a pulpy mess.
■■■■■――!!
Finally, the wound became too significant for the Hollow to ignore, and it began to move.
A massive arm swung. It was as if a mountain itself were in motion.
He could see it coming, yet he could not perceive its speed.
Because of its incomprehensible size, his sense of perspective was utterly shattered.
"Ha!!"
Standing before the massive Hollow, Shigekuni whipped his body, which had momentarily frozen under the pressure.
Focus. For what did you train? For what were those years of pain and endurance?
For what did you build your strength? For what have you lived?
Think. Do not stop thinking.
'If I take this head-on, I die…!'
Feeling this instinctively, Shigekuni threw himself out of the way with all his might.
But completely evading such an overwhelming mass at close range was a pipe dream. Ultimately, the Hollow's claw grazed Shigekuni's face.
Even though it was a mere graze, the force contained within was absurdly immense. For the briefest of moments, Shigekuni lost consciousness.
"Kh-!"
Jarred awake by a dull ache in his neck, he twisted his body mid-air, but the trailing shockwave sent him flying.
After tumbling across the ground several times, Shigekuni finally managed to find his footing. He wiped the blood streaming from his forehead with his thumb and stared at the Hollow with cold eyes.
'If I hadn't twisted my body, my neck would have snapped. No… my entire head would have been torn off.'
While catching his breath, Shigekuni looked around and grit his teeth. From a single strike, half of West Rukongai had been erased from existence.
It was an overwhelming disparity, making his efforts of swinging a thousand times to barely break one leg seem pathetic—yet, Shigekuni did not break.
"Phew… I've done enough warming up."
Clenching his fists once more, Shigekuni stepped forward.
Seeing this, the Hollow began to vent its boiling Spiritual Power in all directions.
Shigekuni could no longer tell if what was trickling down his forehead was cold sweat or the blood flowing from his split brow.
The only thing he knew for certain was that whatever this Hollow was about to do next was going to be beyond ridiculous.
■■■■■――!!
To think a mere insect has reduced me to this. A tiny, insignificant gnat dares…! Enraged, the Hollow hoisted both fists high. That single, primitive action was enough to blot out the sun and plunge the world into shadow.
An astronomical amount of Spiritual Power began to gather in its fists. Soon, a level of Spiritual Pressure capable of tearing the world asunder concentrated in the Hollow's hands.
It could not be blocked. No, even if he did block it, the Soul Society would be destroyed.
Feeling this intuitively, Shigekuni quietly closed his eyes.
He wasn't giving up. This wasn't resignation.
He was simply prepared to burn his own life to the ground to do the absolute best he could.
"Phew…"
With a spark of flame igniting deep within his chest, Shigekuni snapped his eyes open and leaped into the sky.
The Hollow brought its elevated hands slamming down to swat and crush the flying insect.
"KAAAAHH!!"
■■■■■――!!
Fists containing the power to shatter mountains clashed against fists containing the power to crush worlds.
And at the very center where the fists met, there was light.
Shigekuni felt both of his arms—the ones that had intercepted the Hollow's strike—being pulverized from the knuckles up to his shoulders, followed by his ribs and spine, as he plummeted toward the earth.
Whether his survival was a blessing or a curse was unclear.
Amidst pain that felt like his entire body was being torn to shreds, Shigekuni coughed up blood and opened his eyes.
"Cough…!"
The Hollow was still standing.
One of its arms had snapped from the recoil, but that was the extent of it.
'Is it… over? I can't feel my arms… or my legs…'
He whipped his body to stand up somehow, but he couldn't even twitch a finger.
In fact, far from moving, he felt absolutely no sensation in his legs.
'Still… they should have escaped… far enough by now.'
Realizing there were no more voices nearby, Shigekuni finally closed his eyes with a faint smile.
Just as he was about to accept his death, a man's voice reached him.
"Good work."
He snapped his eyes open at the sound, and the sight of a man wearing white hakama with a black obi tied at his waist came into view.
Why is a person still here…? Did they not run…?
The man, speaking over his shoulder, smiled and poked Shigekuni's chest firmly with a finger.
As a surge of nausea made him vomit up a clot of blood, breathing suddenly became much easier.
"What is… this…?"
"Just rest. Someone will be here to treat you soon."
"It's dangerous…! You cannot face him alone…! Kh!"
"Geez, kids these days. Why don't you ever listen? I told you to shut up and rest."
Where did this confidence come from? The man was tall, but he didn't seem muscular, and Shigekuni couldn't feel any Spiritual Power from him.
On what basis could he possibly face that thing?
He would die for nothing.
Had he not trained all this time to prevent such pointless deaths?
Get up.
You aren't dead yet.
If your arms are broken, crawl on the ground and bite him with your teeth.
If your teeth are shattered, use your gums; if even that fails, smash your head against him…!!
"You certainly are a persistent one."
As he spoke, the man forced Shigekuni to lie back down.
Shigekuni, with every bone in his body shattered, obviously couldn't resist and was forced to remain flat on his back.
Once he confirmed that the warrior was no longer trying to rise, the man finally stood and faced the Hollow.
"Let's move. I'd rather not fight here."
As he spoke, the man pulled a tile engraved with a skull from his robes.
"Hell Gate (Jigoku-mon)."
At the man's word, the world split open.
Behind the Hollow that was massive enough to blot out the world, a gate far larger than even it appeared.
"Open."
The massive gate creaked open, swallowing the Hollow whole.