The video held for a moment—
Then the screen froze again, and a brand-new segment began to play.
And this time, the person on camera wasn't the protagonist, Kurosaki Ichigo, nor any of the companions around him.
Instead…
It was someone who had barely appeared on-screen before.
The only time he'd really shown up was back in Hueco Mundo, during that fight where "Bull-Head Ichigo" and the black-winged demon went at each other—when the one escorting Inoue Orihime up to the dome above was Ishida Uryu!
That's right.
The one the camera locked onto this time—
Was actually him!!!
"?!"
"This guy is… Ishida Uryu!"
"He took part in the Thousand-Year Blood War, and he made it to the final battlefield?"
The person with the biggest reaction was, without question, Kurotsuchi Mayuri.
He frowned in confusion, genuinely surprised by Ishida Uryu's sudden appearance.
You couldn't deny it—
Uryu's identity was special: he was also a pure-blood Quincy.
A descendant of one of the few Quincy families still remaining in the World of the Living.
But…
In Mayuri's impression, Ishida Uryu wasn't that strong.
At most, because he'd been trained since childhood, his knowledge and baseline abilities were a bit better than an ordinary person's.
Even if you took a step back—
Even if, in the future timeline, Ishida Uryu became one of Kurosaki Ichigo's companions and got "carried along" the same way Kuchiki Rukia and Abarai Renji did…
So what?
With him alone—
What special ability could he possibly have that would turn the entire battle around?
Don't tell me…
It was going to be Ishida Uryu who exposed Soul King Yhwach's weakness?
That thought had barely risen in Mayuri's mind when—
In the very next moment, on-screen—
As Ishida Uryu ran—
A silver arrow tore through the air.
With a sharp whistling scream, it shot toward his back—
Then slammed down with perfect precision right in front of him,
Blocking his path and forcing him to stop!!!
"Who is it?!"
Those two words came out at the exact same time—from Ishida Uryu and from the viewers.
Everyone was stunned.
At a time like this… there was still a new twist?
Then—
As the camera followed Ishida Uryu's gaze and turned toward the direction the attack had come from—
Two middle-aged men appeared in frame.
They were—
Kurosaki Isshin, and… Ishida Uryu's father.
The first time he'd ever appeared on camera since the ranking video began—
Ishida Ryuken!!!
"???"
"Holy shit… who's that?"
"And Ryuken too! He actually showed up!"
"This scene is seriously not something I expected!!!"
In that instant—
In the World of the Living, inside Urahara's shop—
Kurosaki Isshin himself stared at the screen, eyes wide in shock.
As for his own appearance…
He didn't think much of it.
But—
Ishida Ryuken—his close friend, and one of his romantic rivals back then—
That was what truly shocked him.
"Right…" Urahara Kisuke also looked surprised. "In my memory, Ishida Ryuken is quiet and steady. He always keeps his abilities hidden…"
"I didn't expect that at the very end of the story, he'd be involved with the Thousand-Year Blood War too."
Strictly speaking, Urahara wasn't that close with Ryuken.
But they'd lived in the same city, in Karakura Town, for so many years—
There was no way he didn't know the man's background.
That was why Urahara found it so unexpected.
And with his brain—
With that quick, outside-the-box thinking—
He understood immediately.
Ishida Ryuken, also a pure-blood Quincy—
Was the key figure in this detour.
Most likely, the crucial "tool" needed to defeat Soul King Yhwach—
Would be provided by Ryuken.
And the odds of that were extremely high!!!
"Heh, heh, heh…" Shihōin Yoruichi curled her lips into an amused grin. "So the last—and most critical—assist actually comes from the descendants of the pure-blood Quincy, huh?"
"Soul King Yhwach… that evil villain really is getting abandoned by everyone."
That wasn't wrong.
In fact, after the Auswählen ritual in the Soul King Palace—
The Sternritter had already been sacrificed by Yhwach, turned into disposable pawns.
And now—
If even Ishida Uryu and his father—
If even the pure-blood Quincy they represented—
Were taking this stance…
Then it was no wonder.
In the end, Soul King Yhwach was bound to be defeated.
Evil could never overcome justice!!!
——
After that—
On the video—
Under the viewers' eager gazes, the father-and-son conversation was revealed—
"An arrow…?"
"What does this mean?!"
Lowering his head, Ishida Uryu stared at the arrowhead embedded in the ground—shining like a piece of silver jewelry.
Behind his glasses, his expression was filled with confusion.
He didn't even have time to ask why his father and Kurosaki Isshin had suddenly appeared.
Under the camera's focus, Ishida Ryuken answered directly:
"Uryu…
"All you need to know is this:
"Those pure-blood Quincy who were subjected to 'Auswählen'…"
"The real cause of death for every single one of them…"
"…was a silver blood clot that formed in their hearts!!!"
"And this silver arrowhead—this is a special silver arrow I forged after collecting all of them."
Those simple words—
Instantly shocked the entire world.
At that moment, every viewer across the Bleach world—
Shinigami, Hollows, humans, and even pure-blood Quincy…
All of them wore the same expression.
Eyes widening slightly—
Shock surging through their gaze.
Holy shit.
It was real.
There really was a key item!
And from the sound of it, Ishida Ryuken seemed completely confident—
That with this silver arrowhead, he could counter and kill Soul King Yhwach?
"Heh." Kyōraku Shunsui smiled, his stubbled face lighting with excitement. "Good thing we kept watching. A turning point finally showed up."
It didn't need to kill with a single shot.
As long as that silver arrow, at the critical moment—
Could suppress or seal Soul King Yhwach's Quincy powers—
And buy Kurosaki Ichigo one perfect opening—
Then…
Kyōraku Shunsui believed—
——
With Tensa Zangetsu's near-invincible raw stats…
Carving Soul King Yhwach apart with a single strike wasn't some fantasy—it was practically inevitable.
"So that means…"
"Not just Aizen— even Ishida Uryu will be in that battle, and he'll fire the key shot?"
Ukitake Jūshirō's eyes flared with intense light.
Just imagining what came next—
Imagining the scene of Soul King Yhwach's imminent death—
Made him so excited it was like his blood returned.
His originally pale face flushed red in an instant.
Sure enough—
The moment Ukitake finished speaking—
The video fast-forwarded again.
A seamless transition.
And the scene jumped straight to the final battle in Seireitei!!!
——
"This is…"
"That moment—after Lord Aizen used Hadō #99: Goryūtenmetsu!"
Inside Las Noches, an uproar burst out.
Hollows and Arrancar alike stared at the new footage without blinking.
On-screen—
Even though Aizen's body had been brutally pierced through the chest by Soul King Yhwach's dark arm—
Blood slid from the corner of his mouth.
But Aizen only gave a wicked, enchanting smile.
"Fooled again… Yhwach."
Clearly—
By the power of his Zanpakutō, Kyōka Suigetsu—
Aizen had once more induced a visual deception.
Making Soul King Yhwach—
In that clash just now—
Mistake the one being impaled as Kurosaki Ichigo.
When in reality—
It was Aizen, acting as the substitute!!!
"Oh?"
In the real world, upon his throne—
Aizen himself raised an eyebrow as he watched, smiling with interest.
"So the hypnosis succeeded again? Soul King Yhwach… that's all you are."
From beginning to end, those cold eyes held nothing but disdain—without the slightest trace of fear.
Yes.
Whether it was at the very start—
Back when Yhwach hadn't even "opened his eyes" and revealed The Almighty—
Or now—
After he became the dark Soul King—
After he came within a hair's breadth of destroying the entire Bleach world—
Aizen's attitude toward Yhwach had never changed.
He never treated him as the greatest threat.
He even looked down on him—
Believing this dark villain wasn't even qualified to stand on the same level as himself.
And now—
This successful hypnosis—
Proved Aizen's view wasn't wrong.
Even with The Almighty, Soul King Yhwach wasn't truly invincible.
And as for Aizen's future self—
If he had enough time to keep accumulating spiritual pressure through the Hōgyoku and continue growing stronger—
Then one day…
Maybe he really could completely hypnotize Soul King Yhwach.
And when that day came—
Breaking him, injuring him, making him bleed—
Would no longer be a problem at all!!!
"Aizen-taichō," Ichimaru Gin said with his usual smiling eyes. "Looks like it's your restraint again—completely messing with Soul King Yhwach."
"That's the only reason Kurosaki Ichigo, the protagonist, gets a second chance to swing from behind…"
He wasn't wrong.
At that moment, the camera turned—
Aiming behind Soul King Yhwach.
There—
Kurosaki Ichigo's figure was already there.
He raised his hand, shouted—
And with quick, pounding steps, he gripped the hilt with both hands!
Under countless staring eyes—
He swung a single brutal slash—
And—
Right at the waist—
He cut Soul King Yhwach clean in half!!!
When that scene hit the real world—
It was like a nuclear bomb dropping out of nowhere.
It triggered an unprecedented shock.
Viewers across the globe—enemy or ally—
Erupted all over again!
"Holy shit?!"
"Holy shit… this time, future-you actually did it!"
"He really cut Soul King Yhwach in half with Zangetsu!!!"
In Karakura Town—
On a high school campus—
Arisawa Tatsuki, Sado Yasutora, and Inoue Orihime all shouted in disbelief.
The three stared at the screen—
Mouths hanging open, jaws practically dropping to the floor.
None of them had imagined that the invincible Soul King Yhwach would actually be split open by a single slash!!!
And most importantly—
This twist was so close to what had happened earlier—
Back in Wahrwelt, where Kurosaki Ichigo had been crushed, defeated—
And then cruelly stripped of his power.
Not much time had passed at all.
And yet—
The reversal came this fast!
And the outcome was so clean and decisive—one slash, done!
It was genuinely beyond expectations!!!
"Yeah…" Kurosaki Ichigo nodded.
Watching that cool, sword-swinging version of himself—
He felt surprised, and yet overwhelmingly thrilled, his expression complicated as he spoke:
"It's thanks to Aizen!!!"
"And his Zanpakutō—Kyōka Suigetsu!!"
"If Aizen hadn't pinned him down, I wouldn't have gotten two chances in a row to swing my sword!!!"
First, from the bottom of his heart—
He expressed gratitude and recognition toward Aizen across the screen.
But…
Then he paused.
His brow furrowed, and he voiced his confusion:
"But… that's weird!"
"It's similar to last time, when Renji and I tried a backstab surprise attack together! Same deal—Soul King Yhwach's perception got disrupted at the critical moment!"
"But this time… why didn't The Almighty warn him? Why didn't it let him foresee this scene?"
"It doesn't make sense!!!"
By all logic—
The Almighty should let Soul King Yhwach see every possible future.
So he should have dodged the slash.
He shouldn't have been bisected at the waist.
That was what should have happened.
But it didn't!!!
"So… does that mean…"
"There's another reason hidden in it? Or some unseen detail that wasn't shown?"
"Something that interfered with Soul King Yhwach's judgment?"
That was the only explanation Kurosaki Ichigo could come up with.
Otherwise there was no way to explain why The Almighty suddenly failed.
"Hah…" Arisawa Tatsuki said excitedly, cutting off Kurosaki Ichigo's thoughts. "Ichigo—don't worry about that right now!"
"Being able to slice him in half is already a massive step forward!"
"This means… we're really about to reach the finale!!!"
"Yeah…" Sado Yasutora couldn't help giving his opinion too. "Most likely, that silver blood-clot arrowhead…"
"It'll be when Soul King Yhwach's body is about to regenerate…"
"That it gets fired—perfectly hitting the vital spot."
Even though everyone hoped—
That one slash would just kill Soul King Yhwach and be done with it—
Reason still told Sado and the others—
That was unlikely.
He was the dark Soul King. There was no way he'd go down that easily.
So the earlier guess became extremely plausible.
Meaning—
That slash was only severing his body.
And next—
When Ishida Uryu appeared—
When he took aim and fired that silver arrowhead—
At that time…
Tensa Zangetsu would very likely swing again.
And that—
Would be the true, lethal finishing blow!!!
One slash falls.
The Thousand-Year Blood War—
Would truly reach its grand finale.
(End of Chapter)
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