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"Captain Tōsen…"
"The lieutenant you admired most, Hisagi Shūhei, has fallen too. Seeing this, you must be feeling pretty heavy right now, huh?"
Before the transparent light screen, Ichimaru Gin stretched lazily. His tone was casual, almost bored, as if he were watching a show. He showed not the slightest concern for the gruesome deaths of the vice-captains.
"Not at all."
Half of Tōsen Kaname's face was hidden beneath black cloth, making any change in expression impossible to read. Still, his cold, emotionless voice revealed a heart as hard as stone.
"This is where his fate ends," the blind captain said flatly. "Those who are weak have no right to step onto the final battlefield."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. If Hisagi heard that, his whole belief system would probably collapse," Gin chuckled, clearly amused. After teasing him, he smoothly changed the subject.
"By the way…"
"I've been wondering for a while now. Why is it that the three of us never show our faces? Not once."
That offhand remark instantly cast an eerie silence over the underground base.
Aizen frowned.
Tōsen froze, then suddenly realized something.
Right.
Gin was absolutely right.
The ranking had already passed the halfway point. Even the vice-captains had started appearing on screen. So why hadn't any of them, actual captains, shown up even once?
Could it be…
Faced with the question, Aizen smiled calmly. Behind his black-rimmed glasses, his eyes gleamed with confidence and insight.
"Gin, do you remember when the 'visionary' rankings were shown? Kensei Muguruma and Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi appeared briefly. You still remember which squads they belonged to, don't you?"
"!!"
With Aizen's reminder, it hit Gin like a bolt of lightning. Everything clicked at once.
"So that's how it is… I see. Looks like in the future, the three of us really did manage to defect to Hueco Mundo."
A hundred years ago, before the Visored incident, the captains of the Third and Ninth Divisions were Kensei Muguruma and Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi.
Which meant…
Time was a loop, endlessly repeating.
Because they were forced out back then, Gin and Tōsen took over and became the new captains of those divisions.
And in the future, once Gin and Tōsen defected to Hueco Mundo, those vacant positions would be filled once more by Kensei and Rōjūrō.
That perfectly explained why, during that earlier ranking, the two of them were shown wearing captain's haori while lying in hospital beds, returning to the Gotei Thirteen.
"Don't get too excited just yet, Gin," Aizen said again. "That outcome has already become as illusory as Kyōka Suigetsu itself."
"Captain Aizen, you think that with these ranking videos appearing, the future is being rewritten? That our plan might not even succeed anymore?" Having spent nearly a century at Aizen's side, Gin immediately grasped what he meant.
"That's right," Aizen nodded calmly. "With the rankings revealing secrets ahead of time, the future timeline has fallen into chaos. No one can say for sure what will happen anymore."
"Not even me."
For once, his voice lacked its usual absolute confidence. There was a hint of resignation beneath the composure.
Aizen, whose plans had gone flawlessly for hundreds of years without a single misstep, was now forced to admit his unease.
By this point in the rankings, he had already guessed what was coming next.
Given his overwhelming power at the pinnacle of the Shinigami, there was no way he wouldn't rank in the top five.
Which meant that, whether past or future, everything he had done over centuries would soon be laid bare.
He understood that better than anyone.
"Gin, we should…"
"Prepare ourselves in advance. We might not even be able to wait for Rukia Kuchiki to infiltrate Kurosaki Ichigo's side. We may have to defect early."
His eyes flickered faintly as Aizen spoke, calm yet tinged with reluctant acceptance.
At the same time,
the second segment of the ranking came to an end as the vice-captains fell one after another. The scene shifted again, ushering in a new battle.
"This is…!"
In the Thirteenth Division, Kyōraku Shunsui cried out in surprise.
"Finally! It's the footage after the finale of Katen Kyōkotsu: Karamatsu Shinjū!"
He was so excited that he didn't realize how much strength he used, crushing the edge of the tea table beneath his hand.
Within his sight,
his future self spread two fingers, using hair-thin strands of spiritual energy to cleanly slice through Lille Barro's neck.
The scene connected seamlessly with what came before.
But it wasn't a finishing blow.
It was the beginning of a nightmare.
"Wraaaaaaah!"
Just as Kyōraku was about to relax, his spiritual power nearly exhausted, a crazed, hysterical roar exploded behind him.
"Damn you, Shinigami! I told you from the start! A mere Bankai can never kill a messenger of God!"
Amid the furious shouting, a blinding white beam of light fired off without warning.
Kyōraku couldn't dodge in time. His abdomen was pierced straight through, blood spraying from his mouth.
In an instant, the tide of battle reversed.
"This is bad…"
"Just like those pure-blood Quincy in the last ranking, the Schutzstaffel after Auswählen are nearly impossible to kill."
Watching his closest friend suffer such a devastating blow, Ukitake Jūshirō felt a deep, unsettling dread rise in his chest.
Beside him,
Kyōraku wore a helpless expression.
A bitter, weary smile spread across his face as he spoke with quiet despair.
"Bankai was my last card. If even that can't kill him, then it means my future self is destined to die on that battlefield…"
He had long since made peace with life and death. He wasn't afraid to see his own end.
But that didn't mean he was willing to accept defeat.
Because the Schutzstaffel, empowered by Auswählen, had gone far beyond normal understanding. They could hardly even be called human anymore.
To lose to a monster like that, was something Kyōraku Shunsui could never truly accept.
Sure enough, amid the thunderous roars,
Lille Barro's dying body was gradually engulfed by blinding holy light.
His once-bleeding, angelic form swelled and expanded, transforming completely into something else.
Yes.
After entering the second stage of Vollständig,
Lille Barro was no longer human at all.
As the holy light faded,
his transformed appearance slowly came into view through the screen.
Eight wings. Four legs. A long neck, white body, sharp beak, and piercing eyes.
A grotesque, long-necked bird, shrouded in a miniature angelic halo.
When the image finally froze, an uproar swept through the entire world of the Shinigami.
Hueco Mundo, Las Noches.
"???"
"A bird… a birdman? What the hell kind of monster is that?!"
Watching the creature flap its wings and soar through the sky, its long neck twisting and writhing unnaturally,
even the gathered Arrancar, who had all once been grotesque monsters themselves before their evolution, felt their stomachs churn.
It was disgusting.
How could a perfectly fine human turn into a birdman?
Even worse, the wings on Lille Barro's back were riddled with holes far larger than before.
From a distance, they looked corroded, eaten away by something unseen.
Just looking at it was enough to make anyone feel sick.
So, after watching for only a short while, most people couldn't take it anymore and started gagging.
"Ugh!!"
"That's disgusting. My eyes are burning!"
"Damn pure-blood Quincy, how can something be this ugly?! He's ten thousand times more irritating than a Soul Reaper!"
"Exactly! I'm siding with the Soul Reapers on this one. Someone hurry up and kill that freaky bird bastard!"
…
In that moment,
the Arrancar put aside their differences.
They no longer aimed their hostility at the Gotei 13.
Instead, every ounce of hatred they had was redirected toward Lille Barro.
Faction, allegiance, enemy lines… none of that mattered anymore.
But deliberately disgusting everyone on camera?
That was unforgivable.
He deserved to die.
———
The video resumed.
"Kyōraku Shunsui…"
"At this very moment, you must be drowning in despair, aren't you?"
From midair came Lille Barro's voice, shrill and sharp like a bird's cry.
Those huge, round eyes on his elongated avian neck reflected the sight of Kyōraku lying on the ground, barely clinging to life.
By this point, the outcome of the battle was painfully clear.
Thanks to what felt like a cheat-level second evolution,
Lille Barro had snatched victory from the brink of death and revealed a grotesque, hopeless level of vitality.
"Weapons can't kill me…"
"Even severing my neck with spiritual pressure won't do it…"
"I cannot die! I am invincible! I am the divine messenger personally granted authority by His Majesty! My very existence is meant to punish sinners like you!"
The mad roar was drenched in arrogance and delirium.
Lille Barro twisted his neck, writhing and preening in the air like he was reveling in his own divinity.
At the same time…
a brilliant golden light gathered at the tip of his sharp beak.
"Farewell…"
"Second-generation Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13. You will be erased, along with your sins, beneath holy radiance!"
Finally,
when that golden flash fully solidified,
Kyōraku Shunsui shut his eyes in despair within the video, completely giving up the struggle.
And then,
just as expected, as the laser-like holy light fired,
Kyōraku's figure was swallowed by endless brilliance.
This round of the ranking came to an end.
"..."
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