In that instant, Hitsugaya and Renji's pupils dilated. They stared at the scene before them in utter disbelief. Behind the two, Kuchiki Byakuya also furrowed his brows slightly. At this moment, it was as if he recalled the Rukia who had once become a Hollow—twisted and evil.
"Captain Hitsugaya, please step aside."
Kuchiki Byakuya spoke in a low voice.
Hitsugaya frowned and glanced at Byakuya, a bit confused. "What do you mean?"
However, by this time, Rukia had already opened her eyes.
Her eyes turned pitch-black, and in the next moment, a layer of white substance appeared on her face. That white material spread rapidly, and finally formed a mask.
"Roar!"
Rukia let out a thunderous roar, and in an instant a massive spiritual pressure erupted from her body—one that was overwhelmingly evil, completely Hollow-like.
At the same time, the Zanpakutō in her hand also changed. The blade that had once been among the most beautiful of all Zanpakutō was now stained with a faint white spiritual pressure.
As the pale white reiatsu wrapped around it, the sword began to twist and warp, until, eventually…
Though her entire form was white, what now stood in front of them was a huge crimson reaper's scythe, as red as blood.
Hitsugaya's pupils contracted. He whipped around and drew his blade, trying to defend himself, but he was still a step too slow. Rukia's body vanished in an instant and reappeared behind Hitsugaya first.
Hitsugaya turned his head. "Hyōrinmar—"
Hitsugaya Tōshirō had intended to release his Zanpakutō, but before he could even utter the three syllables "Hyō-rin-mar—", the enormous scythe had already pierced straight through his body.
"Captain Hitsugaya?!"
Seeing this, Renji was stunned. He had no idea what was happening. He couldn't understand why Rukia had suddenly become like this.
This was obviously…
A fake!
But there was no time to figure anything out now. Because right after Hitsugaya collapsed to the ground, Rukia had already reappeared beside Renji.
When Renji turned sideways, he didn't even get to react before another pale scythe thrust through his body.
"Guh…"
Renji's expression twisted in pain as he clutched his chest. But even so, he still couldn't comprehend why Rukia would actually attack him.
At the side, Byakuya simply stood there quietly, watching as his two comrades were struck down one after another.
"For now… should I still call you Rukia?"
"Roar!"
The only answer he received was another feral roar.
Rukia's body vanished again. She reassembled around Byakuya, just like she had with Hitsugaya and Renji, raising the scythe in her hand to bring it down on him.
However, by this time, countless sakura petals had already appeared around Kuchiki Byakuya. The scattered petals converged before the falling scythe, forming a shield that blocked the strike.
Even though Rukia had grown much stronger after Hollowfication, it shouldn't have been possible for her to defeat Hitsugaya and Renji in just a few seconds in a straightforward fight.
The only reason she had cut them down so easily was that the change was too abrupt, and they hadn't reacted at all.
A Shinigami's power in battle doesn't increase just because of wild anger. It's not as if anyone can turn into a raging beast on demand.
For a Shinigami, the balance of the heart is crucial. Once that central balance shatters, huge openings appear in one's defense.
Shock is itself a sign of mental imbalance. So whenever a Shinigami shows a look of shock, what often follows is a one-sided assault—and quite often, an instant kill.
Byakuya, on the other hand, was always composed. With Hitsugaya and Renji acting as a buffer, by the time Rukia turned her killing intent on him, he was already on guard.
"So this is your answer, then…"
And so…
This was his own answer—
Byakuya released his grip.
Senbonzakura fell toward the ground and vanished. In the same calm tone, he said:
"Bankai.
Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."
Facing this blurred, Hollowfied Rukia, Kuchiki Byakuya couldn't afford any carelessness. Even if it meant using a Shinigami's strongest technique—Bankai.
In an instant, the scattered petals danced across the world. Byakuya stood silently beneath tens of thousands of sakura petals, eyes lowered.
The flower petals whirled swiftly around his body. Within that frozen world, sunlight pierced through the gaps between petals, casting dappled light across Byakuya and Rukia's faces.
Yet that light brought no warmth—only a biting chill.
As Byakuya extended his hand, hundreds of thousands, millions, perhaps even more sakura petals spun at his call, forming a dreamlike vortex. At that moment, the two of them stood opposite one another, pale hair glowing faintly, the edges of their clothing fluttering lightly in the wind.
In that frozen world, countless spiraling petals drifted. In that world, the two of them faced off.
It might have looked like a romantic scene.
But the moment one remembered that these petals were blades that reaped lives, it was enough to send shivers down anyone's spine.
The scythe in Rukia's hand cleaved everything before it. Her immense power swung down, and the petals that swept toward her were sliced apart, clearing a path as she charged straight at Byakuya.
However, compared to the sheer number of petals shattered, it was insignificant. The petals, piled like crashing waves, continued to surge toward Rukia.
Rukia kept swinging her scythe, but faced with such numbers, how could the strength of a single person possibly stand against hundreds of millions of blades?
"Has even… your soul been lost?"
Byakuya's tone grew even colder.
If she still had Sode no Shirayuki, she would actually have had some advantage against an attack like this. After all, she could freeze large swathes of sakura with ice.
But now, stripped of that ability, all she had was an extremely sharp scythe that could cut through almost anything—and all she could do with it was hack away at the endless flow of petals engulfing her.
Byakuya guided the torrent of Senbonzakura with his hand. Under his direct control, the petals became faster, sharper.
When he sensed that Rukia was about to reach her limit, her body suddenly began to disintegrate.
This wasn't normal Shunpo, nor a Hollow's Sonído. It was simply extremely fast spatial movement—if she was blocked by Senbonzakura, it was still useless.
Rukia's current power…
Was space-shifting.
Ignoring the surrounding petals, Rukia's body reassembled right beside Kuchiki Byakuya. Yet before she could bring her scythe down, a massive surge of petals crashed over her in a single wave.
Byakuya's strength had increased as well.
First, he had fought against a Hollowfied body wielding a broken mask. Then he faced an enemy who couldn't withstand the Hollow King's attack. Later, he battled a weakened Hollow King.
If a Shinigami wanted to grow fast, the best method was to fight at their very limits. These battles had certainly honed Kuchiki Byakuya's power.
And seeing Rukia grow stronger and stronger, Byakuya had also been training in secret .
Byakuya's Zanpakutō turned into countless sakura blades to cut down his enemies, and among this sea of petals, there was always a circle where he remained untouched.
Hurtless Area.
This was essentially a restriction Byakuya had designed to ensure his safety. If an enemy broke through the barrier of sakura and shattered that circle, he himself might be injured as well.
But through training, Byakuya had managed to shrink this Hurtless Area down to an extremely small radius, allowing him to kill enemies with Senbonzakura even if they appeared very close to him.
At this moment, Kuchiki Rukia was facing the full assault of Senbonzakura, clearly at a disadvantage.
Soon, wounds began to appear on her body. While her Hollow power allowed regeneration, the consumption of spiritual pressure was enormous.
If reiatsu was depleted too much, even regeneration couldn't be sustained.
Yet even as he watched his younger sister become drenched in blood, Kuchiki Byakuya did not stop controlling Senbonzakura. He fought on without mercy.
When the final wave of petals surged and gradually dispersed, Rukia within it was covered in countless wounds. Each one was small, like a cut made accidentally by a passing blade—but when hundreds, thousands of such wounds were laid atop each other, the sight was terrifying.
Fwoosh!
In the next instant, blood gushed from every tiny wound.
The sakura petals still danced in the wind, surging, gathering, and scattering—like a rain of flowers. In that rain of petals, she could feel her life slowly flowing away.
At last, the strength in her knees vanished, and she fell to the ground. Her entire body collapsed.
As she fell, the great rain of petals gradually faded away. Hundreds of millions of sakura returned and reformed into a Zanpakutō, settling once more into Kuchiki Byakuya's hand.
Looking at the fallen Kuchiki Rukia, Byakuya said nothing.
He did not know how long it took for him to open a Senkaimon and bring the three unconscious people back to Soul Society.
…
After the Shinigami had departed, someone else arrived.
Urahara Kisuke lifted his head and looked up at the darkened sky.
The battle was clearly long over, yet the sky had turned black. A muffled rumbling echoed from the heavens.
As if he had long been prepared for this, Urahara casually picked up an umbrella.
Whoosh!
The moment he opened the umbrella, a heavy downpour crashed down from the sky. The rain lashed the filthy street as he slowly walked over to the frozen square crystal and looked at the Kurosaki Ichigo encased inside.
"So Aizen has already begun to move, huh…"
On his shoulder was a black cat, hiding near Urahara's neck. The cat spoke slowly, "But what I don't get is… why did he enter Rukia's body just to take the Hōgyoku with him?"
"Maybe…"
"There's something even more important to him."
Urahara Kisuke spoke quietly amidst the rain.
The rain poured down in torrents, merging with the water flowing along the street, stirring chaotic waves. Dense droplets seemed to envelop the entire world. The streetlights on both sides flickered, their glow blurred in the curtain of rain.
The black cat curled up on his broad shoulder, listening to the sound of raindrops on the umbrella, wearing a perplexed expression.
Along with the chill in the air, there was a hint of complicated thought flickering in Urahara Kisuke's eyes.
Clearly, Aizen had discovered that Kuchiki Rukia's body contained the Hōgyoku.
But why use such a ridiculous method?
If he wanted to retrieve the Hōgyoku, wouldn't it have been easier to secretly extract it while Rukia was still in Soul Society?
Why do something so showy?
Letting a Hollow within Rukia's body break through to an Arrancar-like form and alert the entire Gotei 13?
Wasn't this just causing trouble for himself?
Too many things had happened in Soul Society over the last hundred, even thousand years. Too many changes had occurred. Even someone as sharp as Urahara couldn't help feeling somewhat confused.
Right now, all he could do was focus on the block of ice before him. The gravely injured person within was frozen, the surface of the ice savagely pelted and washed by the rain. At that moment, the rain looked desolate, like a lonely ghost abandoned by the world.
"This is… what, exactly?"
Urahara Kisuke stared at the lightsaber-like weapon in Ichigo's hand. It was frozen in the ice, but with a single glance he could see how abnormal this sword was.
This was not a Zanpakutō.
From the way spiritual power was condensed within it, it resembled a Quincy spirit weapon, yet it also possessed a Zanpakutō's self-soul properties.
Had Kurosaki Ichigo's Quincy power already awakened?
Urahara had noticed this lightsaber before, but he'd never had the chance to study it properly.
"In any case, let's get Kurosaki out of here first."
"For now, that's all we can do."
"By the way, is Angra still not back?"
"He'll return. But it seems he found something in Hueco Mundo. Said he'd stay there a while to investigate."
"I told you—this is exactly when we should be calling him back."
"Probably…"
Man and cat, together with the frozen Kurosaki Ichigo, disappeared at the end of the street amid the roaring rain…
…
"So you're saying…"
"Does that have something to do with the Tree of Life?"
Just as it felt like the gears of fate had finally started turning, Yoshio and Aizen were conversing atop a high tower.
Yoshio rested his hands on the railing of the tower, overlooking the courtyard of the Seireitei below.
Aizen stood beside him, looking straight ahead as he spoke lightly. "The idea came to me after being inspired by the murals on the walls of the Tokinada Tsunayashiro base."
"If you don't say it, I'd almost think it impossible—but like this, it really does seem plausible."
Yoshio smiled.
Aizen was talking about the power of the Blade that Rends the Heart.
"I've always been curious," Aizen said calmly, "about whether the 'other self' created by the Blade that Rends the Heart is actually a self that develops in another world—ignoring space, and splitting off a being of similar time and mass equal to the user's own strength."
"If this world also has yin and yang," he continued, "then everything can be explained."
The "other self" sliced off by the Blade that Rends the Heart might actually be that self… in another world.
For example, in the current world created by the Soul King, Aizen is Aizen Sōsuke.
But in that world's reflection, the world created by the Hollow King, Aizen is Aizen Aiwass.
In other words, Yoshio's Blade that Rends the Heart doesn't "create" a new self; it calls forth the self that exists in another world into this one.
With that premise, Aizen put forth a new hypothesis.
"Yoshio-kun, your Lonely Hell—could it be the dividing line between yin and yang?"
…