Named Black Ant.
The verdict was sealed.
Before the eyes of the entire world,
the man once known as Yhwach was granted a new name by Shirafude Ichimonji.
At the same time,
his pitch-black body seemed to have been forced into a new form of existence—
reduced to something like a crawling insect.
"Damn it…"
"This is nothing but pure humiliation!"
"That monk… how dare he treat His Majesty like this!!!"
In that instant,
staring at the enormous, glaring words "Black Ant" written across the black shape on the screen,
the pure-blood Quincies felt as if the sky had collapsed.
In their hearts, Yhwach had always been a lofty, sacred figure—
untouchable, almost divine.
And now, in a single moment,
he had fallen into the dust.
The radiance was gone.
The holiness was gone.
Every trace of his former glory was gone.
Worse—
Under the subtle influence of Ichibei's power,
even the way they perceived him had changed.
When they looked at Yhwach again,
it genuinely felt as though they were looking at a black ant
that just happened to have a vaguely human outline.
That was what shamed the pure-blood Quincies the most.
Because somehow…
Each and every one of them had "offended" Yhwach—
their own perception had been dragged away by Ichibei
and forcibly rewritten.
"He had already fought his way into the Soul King Palace…"
"He was just one final step away. Just one.
He only needed to take that last step to stand before the Soul King and absorb him…"
Gerard Valkyrie sighed.
He lowered his eyes, utterly dispirited.
He could not bear to watch anymore.
"Black Ant."
Even hearing that name felt like a stab in the ear.
And Ichibei had carved it straight onto Yhwach's body,
the strokes rough and careless, as if he were doodling.
To Gerard, there was no method more insulting than this.
The Monk—
head of the Zero Division—
From the moment he first appeared,
he had given off a simple, even kindly impression.
But who could have guessed—
When facing enemies and invaders,
he would simply change faces and use the cruelest means imaginable.
Compared to Yhwach,
Gerard and the other pure-blood Quincies now unanimously felt
that Ichibei was the truly evil one.
The one monster in this world
who absolutely could not be provoked.
No exceptions.
—
"So it's over…"
"The once-ambitious, brutal King of the Quincies—"
"Who would've thought stepping into the Soul King Palace would end like this…"
In Urahara's shop,
beneath the brim of his green hat,
Kisuke's expression was still shaken.
In his eyes, the two huge words "Black Ant"
reflected clearly from the screen,
leaving a violent impact on his senses.
This was someone who had been spoken of in the same breath as Hogyoku-Aizen—
one of the absolute peaks of power in the entire Bleach world.
And he had been humiliated to this degree.
It was unbelievable.
"Next, Black Ant Yhwach is probably going to get stomped to death, right?"
Tessai took a deep breath and looked toward Karakura Town in the distance.
Ordinary strong people had ordinary deaths—
cut down, purified…
But to be reduced to a black ant
and then crushed under a foot—
That was a type of death none of them had ever seen before.
—
Meanwhile, on the screen—
Sure enough, Ichibei showed no mercy.
He lifted his foot,
his eyes turning milky white, killing intent filling his gaze.
As his wooden sandal slammed down—
"RUMBLE—!!!"
On both sides of the approach to the Soul King Palace,
the dense, floating spirit particles
once again recreated the same spectacle
as when he had unleashed Thousand-League Sky-Piercing Palm earlier.
In an instant,
they compressed, solidifying into a gigantic foot formed entirely of reishi.
"Tch…"
Seeing this,
the viewers could not help but suck in a breath.
Their eyelids twitched madly.
There really was no way out.
Once that colossal footprint came down,
there was no need to imagine the result—
Black Ant Yhwach would not only be flattened—
his organs, every part of his body,
would burst into paste on the spot.
His death would be hideous beyond words.
"Hmph…"
"Yhwach is only getting what he deserves."
"The moment he spread his flames of war from Soul Society up to the Soul King Palace,
his fate was already decided."
Yamamoto leaned on his wooden staff,
eyes lowered, a trace of confusion in his gaze.
Compared to the previous round,
where he had watched his own future self
use the Bankai form of Ryujin Jakka to turn the world to ashes and kill Yhwach—
This time,
he actually felt more satisfied.
Ichibei's method felt even more cathartic.
The humiliation alone was off the charts.
With this battle exposed and nearly concluded,
the title "King of the Pure-Blood Quincies"—
that name which had previously existed only in rumor
and once made Shinigami go pale—
from this day on
would lose its terror.
In fact, it might even become a joke shared over tea and gossip.
People out for an evening walk—
if they happened to look down
and see little ants crawling out of the cracks in the stone—
would, without even realizing it,
think of Black Ant Yhwach
and the pitiful form he had been reduced to.
In the end,
under countless stunned gazes,
the colossal foot of compressed reiatsu
crashed down, smashing through the air
and punting Black Ant Yhwach clean off the front of the Soul King Palace.
"BOOM—!!!"
Clouds rolled.
Space trembled.
The echo of the impact triggered another shockwave.
Black Ant Yhwach, completely devoid of life,
plummeted from tens of thousands of meters in the sky.
And then—
To the viewers' astonishment—
As if he still had not vented enough,
Ichibei raised both hands toward the camera again,
and once more unleashed Thousand-League Sky-Piercing Palm with all his might.
Two gigantic palms of reishi,
left and right,
slammed down in furious succession.
"WHAM!!!"
When the clouds finally dispersed
and the dust and shockwaves faded—
the last scene the viewers saw
was nothing more than a formless blot of black.
Not even a humanoid silhouette remained.
Yhwach's final trace had vanished completely.
Truly—
he had been erased by the terrifying power of Ichimonji,
wiped from the Bleach world.
This round of the ranking thus came to an end.
The duel between the leaders of two races—
had revealed, in the most brutal manner possible,
Yhwach's ultimate fate.
He had not even been able to choose his own death.
To end up as a black ant
and be stomped flat—
it was the most suffocating, humiliating death
the viewers had ever seen.
No contest.
—
"That's twice now, isn't it?
Twice in a row that future footage has shown Yhwach being killed."
Inside First Division,
Mayuri Kurotsuchi sneered, deliberately twisting the knife.
"Two rounds in a row.
Each time he dies, it's more miserable than the last."
"If you ask me… from now on,
that 'King of the Quincies' title should be revoked."
"A so-called king who, in every top-tier battle,
only ever gets thrown around and beaten…
and even now still hides in the shadows,
too scared to show his face—"
He rolled his eyes,
then echoed Ichibei's earlier taunt with open contempt:
"Even if you don't call him Black Ant,
he's no different from a rat crossing the street—
everyone wants to beat him down."
In short,
this battle had completely shattered the aura around Yhwach's name.
Even Mayuri was openly mocking him.
The rest of the viewers felt the same:
none of them saw him as truly terrifying anymore.
On the contrary—
The insulting nickname "Black Ant"
would nail him to the pillar of shame for years to come.
Every time people remembered,
they would laugh,
and he would be reduced to nothing more
than a punchline.
—
Elsewhere, in Las Noches—
"Fortunately for us…"
"With the end of this round…"
"There's finally someone worse off than us Hollows and Arrancars—
those arrogant pure-blood Quincies."
"Right now, their mood must be worse than if they'd swallowed flies."
Hands stuffed in his pockets,
Grimmjow grinned savagely, in a fantastic mood.
Previously,
in the early rounds of the rankings,
Hueco Mundo's presence had been practically zero.
They were basically background furniture.
Even when the Espada appeared,
it was only to serve as cannon fodder,
dying in back-and-forth fights just to hype up some Zanpakutō.
Morale had plummeted.
The Hollows were depressed.
But now…
Grimmjow was sure
that with this latest round,
the same sense of humiliation
would bloom in the hearts of the pure-blood Quincies—
even more intensely.
And the once-mysterious "Schrift" powers—
in the eyes of the viewers—
had lost much of their mystique
thanks to Yhwach's repeated defeats.
They just did not feel that scary anymore.
"Next round, barring accidents…"
"The one being ranked is almost certainly going to be Lord Aizen's Zanpakutō—Kyoka Suigetsu."
In a corner, Yammy bared his teeth in a grin.
To him,
Kyoka Suigetsu's power was beyond doubt.
Because—
Up until now,
in Hueco Mundo and in Soul Society,
among almost all high-level fighters—
including Yammy himself—
no one had ever escaped
from Kyoka Suigetsu's total hypnosis.
And the video had already spoiled
that in the future, once Aizen perfectly fused with the Hogyoku,
he would continue to evolve over and over.
Which meant…
With his realm, power, and reiatsu endlessly growing,
Kyoka Suigetsu's strength would likewise soar.
Yammy even felt that, by then,
all Aizen would have to do
was release his reiatsu with a single thought—
and he could hypnotize the entire world.
Ruling the Bleach world through sheer will
did not seem impossible at all.
"Second place?"
Zommari shook his head.
His dark face turned toward the throne and Aizen's back,
eyes burning with fanatic devotion.
"Why can't it be first?"
"Only first place is worthy of Lord Aizen's stature."
"And once he takes first—
we, Hueco Mundo and the entire Arrancar army,
will bask in his reflected glory!"
Now that Yhwach had fallen—
branded forever with the label of "Black Ant"—
when people looked across the entire world,
only one villain still retained his full mystique and aura:
Aizen.
Thus the Espada supported him unconditionally.
The more extreme among them
already believed he would absolutely take the top spot.
"First place, huh…"
On the throne,
Aizen's expression grew subtly intriguing.
Outwardly, his face remained calm as ever.
But deep inside,
a powerful anticipation—
even a hint of yearning—
rose up.
He had considered this possibility before.
As the man manipulating everything from the shadows—
after so many rounds of ranking—
with both Ryujin Jakka and Ichimonji already placed—
even from Aizen's perspective,
it was difficult to imagine
what other Zanpakutō in the world
might stand above Kyoka Suigetsu.
As he was pondering—
the transparent screen flickered.
The darkness on the light curtain
brightened once more,
and new subtitles appeared.
[Second Place] Kyoka Suigetsu
[Zanpakutō: Kyoka Suigetsu]
When those two lines appeared—
especially the name Kyoka Suigetsu—
the viewers, still reeling from Yhwach's brutal defeat,
were thrown into fresh turmoil.
The Bleach world exploded again.
—
"Aizen…"
"Damn it… that bastard…"
"I knew his Zanpakutō would end up in the top three…"
"But seeing it actually written there still makes my chest feel tight!"
In the abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Karakura Town,
the moment the subtitles appeared,
the place erupted.
The Visored captains felt their blood pressure spike,
their brows knotting in unison,
a wave of disgust rising from deep within.
"Damn…"
"Just thinking about how he's about to strut around in battle scenes again
really makes me not want to keep watching…"
Hiyori Sarugaki slumped,
her mood sinking.
Even now,
she still had not recovered
from the earlier rankings of the Zanpakutō Night Solace,
where the footage had unceremoniously cut her story short.
With old grudges piled on top of new—
her hatred for Aizen and Gin burned even hotter.
However—
Among them,
Lisa Yadomaru adjusted her glasses and stayed calm.
"Actually, instead of just getting angry," she said,
"why don't we look at it from another angle?"
"This ranking of Aizen's Zanpakutō
is guaranteed to expose his past and future—
every dirty little trick he pulled in secret."
"That's a good thing for us."
In Lisa's view,
the reason Aizen had been able to manipulate everything from behind the scenes
was precisely because of Kyoka Suigetsu's unbeatable hypnotic power.
Now—
whether it was the trap he set for them a hundred years ago,
or the way he later toyed with the entire Gotei 13—
the video would lay it all bare at once.
Their Visored corps—
all the false charges, all the humiliation they had suffered—
would be revealed.
In a way,
it would wash away some of their disgrace.
Before anyone could respond,
the transparent screen flashed again.
The subtitles faded
and, after a brief shimmer,
a new image appeared:
A golden pendulum.
Like the hand of a clock,
it swung gently back and forth—
and with each tiny movement,
it tugged at the viewers' thoughts,
pulling them back to one hundred years ago.
Seeing this,
the Visoreds first froze—
then burst into joy.
They looked at one another, eyes bright with excitement,
and shouted in unison:
"Holy crap…"
"Looks like this time, it really is going back to the past,
not just showing future battle clips!"
Their eyes shone with intense light.
At this moment,
more than ever before,
the Visored captains were desperate to see
what was about to play.
They wanted to see it all.
Everything.
(End of Chapter)
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