"Silence."
BOOM!
A dull yet deafening sound erupted as the gavel in Kuchiki Ginrei's hand slammed down, waves of spiritual pressure rippling through the council chamber.
The wise men of Central 46 all reined in their expressions at once, their eyes turning cold and indifferent as they looked at Sui Feng, who was still sneering at the center.
"Sui Feng of the Feng Family! We will conduct one final inquiry. Do you acknowledge your guilt?", Kuchiki Ginrei spoke in a flat voice. This was the last bit of dignity he would grant her as a noble.
If Sui Feng admitted guilt, a sentence of a hundred years' imprisonment would more or less settle it.
But if she still refused to acknowledge it, then there would be no mercy at all.
"I am not guilty!"
Sui Feng let out a cold laugh, with no intention whatsoever of accepting the charge.
She had long since prepared herself.
Since the people of the Hueco Mundo Palace had returned her Zanpakuto to her, she had never planned to admit guilt today.
With her Zanpakuto hidden away, the restraints on her spiritual pressure were not an issue at all.
She was just waiting, waiting for the best moment to break free.
When that time came, she would immediately use the Hollow power within her to open a Garganta, detour through Hueco Mundo, and reach the world of the living.
And when that happened, she would find that woman she had not seen for a hundred years, and kill her.
"Stubborn beyond redemption!"
Kuchiki Ginrei snorted coldly. A layer of frost spread across his aged face as he raised the gavel, about to deliver the final verdict.
"Now, I declare—"
BOOM!
His words were completely swallowed by an even more violent explosion.
The kneeling Sui Feng suddenly erupted with a surging, tsunami like burst of spiritual pressure from within her body.
The captain level fury and power that had been suppressed for so long now bloomed without restraint, instantly sweeping through the entire chamber.
The solid floor beneath her feet cracked inch by inch, collapsing into spiderweb like ruins.
And the wise men seated high above, caught off guard by this sudden storm of pressure, were blown down in utter disarray like leaves in a gale. Robes in chaos, crowns askew, every trace of their ugliness laid bare.
"Criminal! How dare you!"
Kuchiki Ginrei, having once been captain level at his peak, was not affected by the pressure. Instead, he glared at Sui Feng in fury.
At the same time, from the gallery seats, Rosse, Kyoraku Shunsui, and "Tosen Kaname" had already turned into afterimages, charging toward Sui Feng from the same direction.
"Heh, you're already too late!", Sui Feng's cold laughter rang out clearly amid the roar of spiritual pressure. In her hand, she was already holding her Zanpakuto, though no one knew when she had drawn it.
Rip!
She did not attack anyone. Instead, she slashed horizontally.
Space tore apart like fragile cloth, and a deep black void swirling with barren aura appeared out of thin air.
"A Garganta? So you really are in collusion with the Hueco Mundo Palace!", Kyoraku Shunsui blurted out instinctively when he saw it.
For Sui Feng to open a Garganta under these circumstances was proof enough of her ties to the Hueco Mundo Palace.
Before his words even finished, he had already closed in on Sui Feng, his twin blades crossing into a deadly X as he slashed down without hesitation.
With the evidence conclusive, he would not hold back any longer.
Sui Feng seemed to have anticipated this. She was just about to activate shunpo and leap into the Garganta that led to freedom and revenge.
However, at that very instant—
Buzz!
An aura far more massive and far more terrifying than Sui Feng's spiritual pressure surged backward from the other side of the Garganta, like the roar of a deep sea behemoth awakening after ten thousand years of slumber.
The overwhelming pressure swept across the entire area indiscriminately, crushing every position without a single blind spot.
Even though at that moment Commander Yamamoto and the three members of Squad Zero reacted quickly enough to jointly deploy a spiritual pressure barrier in front of Central 46, more than a dozen wise men closest to it still bled from all seven orifices and died on the spot under that extreme, horrifying pressure.
"Shutara's spiritual pressure... are you kidding me?", Kirinji Tenjiro's face instantly turned extremely grim as he stared fixedly at that stretch of deep darkness.
At the same time, because of this massive surge of pressure, Sui Feng's movements stalled, while Kyoraku Shunsui, who had been confident of victory, pulled back without the slightest hesitation.
'Is this a joke? This level of spiritual pressure is already on the old man's level,' He had no intention of taking even a single hit from someone like that.
This had been fishing from the start.
After dangling the bait for so long, a big fish had finally bitten. That should have been a good thing.
'But from what that Squad Zero senior just said, it sounds like the person coming is someone they know...'
'Shutara... damn it, it wouldn't be her, would it?'
Kyoraku Shunsui steadied himself. In those eyes that always carried a hint of laziness, only an unprecedented gravity remained.
His gaze, like that of all the top tier powerhouses present, was locked firmly on the darkness, watching the dignified and luxurious, composed figure slowly emerge from within.
As expected... it really was her.
Squad Zero member, Shutara Senjumaru!
'But what kind of joke is this? If even she has betrayed Soul Society, do we really have any need to keep resisting?'
"Who are you?", As he watched the figure slowly walk out of the Garganta, Rosse asked the question that most people present cared about.
Not everyone knew the names of Squad Zero. When making an entrance like this, an introduction was only proper. That was how you left a deep impression.
"My name is Shutara Senjumaru. I was once a member of the Royal Palace. Now I have joined the Hueco Mundo Palace, bearing the title 'Great Weave Guard.'"
The Shutara Senjumaru played by Rosse let out a string of light laughter. She leaned forward slightly, her gaze falling on Commander Yamamoto and the others as she spoke at an unhurried pace, "Since those present are all old friends, would you be willing to do me a favor? Let me take her with me?"
"Shutara, why did you betray the Royal Palace?", Nimaiya Oetsu, with his black punk like curls, frowned slightly as he questioned Shutara Senjumaru.
Spiritual pressure would not lie. The woman before him was indeed Shutara Senjumaru.
But whether she was truly Shutara herself, and whether this was truly her own will, he remained reserved in his judgment.
After all, there were far too many strange abilities in this world.
There were powers that allowed the dead to return to life, powers that allowed one to impersonate others, and likewise, powers that allowed one to control others.
So he could not be sure which situation Shutara was in.
The one thing he could be absolutely certain of was that the Zanpakuto held in the skeletal arm behind Shutara's back was indeed Shutara's Zanpakuto.
And since the woman before him could use Shutara's shikai, she was very likely the real person.
As for why he could not sense the connection between the Oken and Squad Zero, there was no need to think about it. That was clearly the handiwork of the Hueco Mundo Palace.
Without that ability, Shutara would never have chosen to defect.
"Betrayal? If there was never any loyalty to begin with, how could there be betrayal? Or is it that any of you truly hold loyalty to that thing in the sky? Right now, I have simply seen a brand new possibility, one more worthy of my efforts."
Shutara Senjumaru spoke calmly, but the deeper meaning contained in her words made Kirinji and the other Squad Zero members shudder inwardly.
To so directly speak of the problem above, and of the thoughts in their own hearts, it seemed that the Shutara Senjumaru before them was, in all likelihood, the real one.
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