#How Many Characters Is Alex Going to Kill This Time?#
As soon as the two latest episodes of Bleach finished airing that week, this topic exploded across the fandom. In truth, it did not remain confined to Bleach fans for long. Within hours, almost the entire younger side of the internet was talking about the same thing.
Although the fanbase of Stardust Crusaders was nowhere near the size of Bleach's, everyone knew one thing very clearly: Alex was the kind of creator who never hesitated when it came to killing characters. Once he decided to cut someone down, he did it cleanly, mercilessly, and usually with the audience's heart still attached to the blade.
And the atmosphere in the latest episode had already been pushed to a dangerous point.
With that level of tension, that smell of disaster hanging in the air, and that heavy sense of an era reaching its end, it almost felt like an insult to the viewers if he did not kill at least a few important characters.
So, naturally, many netizens began organizing online polls.
They lined up all the major characters one by one: Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia, Ishida Uryu, Orihime Inoue… and then the members of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, including Biakuya, Hitsugaya, Kenpachi Zaraki, and many others.
The question was simple and cruel: which characters would die in next week's update?
And then, unsurprisingly to some and shockingly to others, the character with the highest number of votes was Momo.
The reason was brutally straightforward.
Most viewers felt that the character no longer had much use in the story. And considering Alex's infamous habit of turning emotionally fragile characters into knives aimed straight at the audience's chest, the conclusion seemed obvious: Momo was probably next.
When Bella, the actress playing Momo, saw the poll, she did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Those damn netizens had guessed far too accurately.
Still, many people disagreed. Some viewers believed that because of Momo's almost obsessive admiration for Sosuke Aizen, she might betray everyone midway through the battle and be used by Aizen once again as a disposable pawn.
Perhaps even as the tool to kill Hitsugaya.
Because of that theory, Hitsugaya's vote count also rose to a worrying level.
In the end, aside from Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia, who clearly stood at the emotional center of the story, almost every other character had a terrifyingly high death rate in the poll.
After all, Yamamoto, the Captain-Commander, had died in the very first weekly update.
After that, no one dared to question how quickly Alex could turn a beloved character into a painful memory.
"Phew… good, good. They guessed some of it, but not too much."
Alex had seen the poll as well.
Fortunately, aside from Momo's inevitable death, those noisy internet idiots had not actually figured out where the story was heading.
The new week finally arrived under the desperate anticipation of countless fans.
Unlike the previous weeks, many viewers who sat down in front of their computers this time had already prepared tissues beside their keyboards. No one wanted a repeat of Stardust Crusaders, where they had been emotionally stabbed without warning and left looking like war survivors by the end of the episode.
This time, they were ready.
Or at least, they thought they were.
Inside the Seireitei, the scene was devastating. Blood stained the corridors, the courtyards, and the shattered walls of the division barracks. Bodies of squad members lay scattered everywhere, some still whole, others reduced to silent remnants of a battle that had already crossed every acceptable line.
"That's… Captain Hitsugaya's Bankai… How can the enemy be using it to attack us?"
The surviving members of the Tenth Division stared in horror at the figure approaching them. Halibel advanced with wings of ice spread behind her, while her arms and legs were covered in a crystalline, lethal frost.
For the soldiers of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, there was no nightmare greater than seeing the Bankai of a captain, one of the greatest protective forces of the Seireitei, turned into a weapon in the enemy's hands.
"Do not be afraid!"
The voice that rang out still carried a trace of youth, but its firmness was enough to cut through the panic.
Hitsugaya stepped forward from the rear.
Beside him stood Hiyori Sarugaki and Lisa Yadomaru, former members of the Visored who had now joined forces with the Thirteen Court Guard Squads.
"Captain Hitsugaya!"
The moment they saw their captain, the terror on the faces of the Tenth Division soldiers slowly began to turn into hope. The fear was still there. The uncertainty was still there. But his presence alone was enough to reignite something the war had almost crushed.
"Hyorinmaru is my Zanpakutō. I understand its abilities better than anyone."
Hitsugaya looked toward the two allies beside him and spoke with the cold composure of someone who had already accepted the weight of battle.
"I'll be counting on your support."
"Who said I came here to support you, shorty?! Our only goal is to take down Sosuke Aizen! Got that, baldy? Baldy, baldy, baldy!"
Hiyori burst into insults without the slightest restraint, as if the battlefield, the corpses, and the end of the world were nothing more than irritating background details.
The scene shifted.
Across different parts of the Seireitei, the main combatants from both sides had finally begun to clash.
Against the two captain-level shinigami under Sosuke Aizen's command, as well as the four Espada, the Soul Society side relied on its numerical advantage. In most confrontations, two or three captain-level fighters were sent to contain a single enemy.
Standing before Kaname Tōsen were Kensei Muguruma, former captain of the Ninth Division; Sajin Komamura, his former friend and current captain of the Seventh Division; and Shūhei Hisagi, who had once served under him.
"It's been a long time, Tōsen. You really put the Ninth Division through hell back then."
On Shunsui Kyōraku's recommendation, Kensei had once again put on the captain's haori. But the smile on his face held no warmth. It was the kind of expression worn by someone whose anger had aged for a hundred years and had finally found an open door.
But just as Kensei took a step forward, ready to settle an old debt, Komamura, who for some reason had put his helmet back on, raised one arm and stopped him.
"My apologies, Captain Kensei. I know you have your own grievances with Tōsen, but… would you allow me to handle this battle?"
Kensei frowned, concerned.
"Don't do anything reckless. Your Bankai has already been…"
He did not finish the sentence.
The moment Komamura removed his helmet, both Kensei and Hisagi froze in shock.
That was no longer the beastly wolf-like face everyone knew.
It was a human face.
"Bankai."
In the next instant, spiritual pressure far beyond anything Komamura had ever shown before erupted from his body.
Kokujo Tengen Myo'o, which should have been stolen, appeared once again. But it was not the same form as before. The giant warrior that had once stood like an armored war god had returned in an even more terrifying shape, like a demon born from the depths of hell itself.
"Tōsen! I will drag both you and Sosuke Aizen down into hell with me!"
Through a brief flashback, the audience finally learned what had happened to that great, loyal hound during the time everyone had spent waiting for Aizen's attack on the Soul Society.
Komamura had sought out his grandfather and learned the forbidden technique of his clan: the Humanization Technique.
It required him to sacrifice his own heart and life. In exchange, he cast away his existence as a living being, leaving behind only spiritual pressure and raw strength concentrated into a form that was already walking toward death.
Once the original host died, the Zanpakutō would naturally lose its source of power as well.
That was why, at the moment Komamura sacrificed his heart, the Bankai sealed inside the medallion disappeared on its own.
In its place appeared Kokujo Tengen Myo'o: Dangai Jōe.
No matter who ultimately won this war, the first captain destined to fall had already been decided.
Alex, that bastard, really had not changed at all.
He opened with the knife.
Facing Tōsen's monstrous Hollowfied form, Komamura looked at his former friend with a sorrow too heavy to be called simple pain.
"Hollowfication… You truly have changed, Tōsen. Then, at the very end, allow me at least to…"
But just as Komamura and every viewer thought Tōsen was about to reveal his Bankai, something unexpected happened.
"You intend to drag me into hell? After seeing the release of my blade, will you still be able to say that?"
Tōsen's voice suddenly turned dark and inhuman. Under the shocked gazes of the three opponents before him, he lowered the blade of his Zanpakutō vertically.
"Grillar Grillo."
Seeing his former friend in that state, Komamura's human face filled with silent grief.
It was not only Hollowfication.
Tōsen had even mastered Resurrección.
At that moment, Komamura understood with terrible clarity that the friend he once knew had completely abandoned his identity as a shinigami.
Elsewhere in the Seireitei, the situation was no better.
Starrk, the First Espada, once again encountered Shunsui Kyōraku, captain of the Eighth Division, and Jūshirō Ukitake, captain of the Thirteenth.
Soi Fon, Rose Otoribashi, and Hachigen Ushōda crossed paths with Baraggan, the Second Espada.
And Biakuya, Love Aikawa, and several other captain-level fighters finally came face to face with Ulquiorra.
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