The air in Karakura Town was thick, a soupy miasma of fear and predatory spiritual pressure. The moment Akio and his team stepped out of the Senkaimon, the Denreishinki on his hip erupted in a chorus of frantic, overlapping beeps. The sky, once blue, was tinged with a sickly violet hue from the concentration of corrupted energy.
"Anzu," Akio's voice was calm, a rock in the churning spiritual sea. "Full sensory net. Prioritize Plus signatures. I want a live map of every civilian soul in a half-kilometer radius."
"On it, sir!" Anzu's eyes slid shut, her Reiatsu flowing out in a fine, intricate web. "I have located twelve Plus souls. Four are clustered near the park, terrified. The others are scattered, fleeing. Hollow signatures... eight confirmed, maybe more. Their Reiatsu is... agitated. Coordinated."
"Kito," Akio didn't turn, his own senses—the Shadow Network—already blooming outwards. The world providing a new layer of data to him; every shadow cast by the afternoon sun became a nerve ending. He could feel the lumbering, heavy presence of a large Hollow two blocks east, the skittering, insectoid movements of two smaller ones on the rooftops, and the panicked flutter of the Plus souls like trapped birds. "You are the anvil. Anchor position at the park entrance. Nothing gets past you to those Plus souls. Use disabling strikes. We are here to save lives, not just collect bodies."
"Understood." Kito's voice was a low rumble. He drew his Zanpakutō, its blunt edge gleaming dully, and took off with a ground-shaking Shunpo, positioning himself as a silent, immovable barrier before the terrified cluster of spirits.
"Choji. You're with me. Defensive Bakudō focus. Your job is to create openings and protect Anzu. The moment she flags a Plus in immediate danger, you bind the threat. No heroics. Precision."
"Y-yes, sir!" Choji's nod was sharp, his earlier nervousness burned away by the clarity of a defined role.
This was what three years of training had built. Not just individual strength, but a seamless, integrated unit. Akio was no longer a lone weapon; he was the central processor of a tactical network.
"Contact in three... two... one," Anzu called out.
A bestial Hollow, all claws and gnashing teeth, dropped from a rooftop towards them. Choji was already moving, his hands weaving. "Bakudō #9: Geki!"
A red energy sphere snapped into existence around the Hollow, crushing its limbs and halting its charge mid-air. Before it could struggle free, Akio was a blur. He didn't draw Kagegari. A single, shadow-infused Toryū strike to its mask, precise and brutal, shattered it to dust. He performed the Konsō on the fading spirit without breaking stride.
"Plus soul on the main street, heading west. A Menos-class is converging on its position!" Anzu's voice was tight.
"Choji, Seki barrier to divert the Plus soul south, away from the Menos. Anzu, guide it towards Kito's position." Akio's commands were swift, absolute.
"Bakudō #8: Seki!" A hexagonal barrier of energy shimmered into existence, gently but firmly nudging the confused Plus soul down a side alley, just as a massive, boar-like Hollow rounded the corner, its roar shaking the windows.
"Second Hollow, scorpion-type, on your six, Choji!" Anzu warned.
Akio didn't even turn. "Position Play."
He vanished from his spot and reappeared from the shadow of a parked car behind Choji, his blade already drawn. Kagegari met the stinger thrust with a shower of sparks. "Sōryū." A flurry of precise, shadow-wreathed strikes severed the stinger, then the limbs, before a final, clean thrust through the mask dissolved it.
He teleported back to his original position as if he'd never left. "Continue."
They moved through the streets like a well-oied machine. Akio, a phantom of decisive violence, would appear at the point of greatest threat, eliminate it, and vanish, all while his Shadow Network fed him a constant stream of data and his subordinates executed his orders with flawless timing. He was everywhere and nowhere, the invisible hand guiding the battle. He saw Kito catch a charging Hollow with a Gekiryū-enhanced grip, slamming it into the pavement with controlled force. He saw Choji layer a Geki over a Seki to fully immobilize a fast-moving opponent for Anzu to finish with a concentrated Hadō #4: Byakurai.
This was leadership. It was the ultimate expression of the control Sasakibe had beaten into him. It was efficiency. It was protecting what was his.
Then, the ground trembled.
It emerged from a warp in the air, a hulking, bipedal monstrosity with a rhino-like mask and tree-trunk arms that ended in crushing fists. Its Reiatsu was a physical weight, pressing down on the street. A semi-sentient Adjuchas-class, far stronger than the mindless Gillians.
"The bait's centerpiece," Akio murmured. This was the source of the coordinated wave, the pack leader.
"Sir! Its spiritual pressure is overwhelming my net!" Anzu reported, sweat beading on her forehead.
"Fall back. Link with Kito and Choji. Form a defensive perimeter. This one is mine."
He didn't wait for a response. He walked calmly towards the behemoth as it charged, its footsteps cracking the asphalt. The old Akio might have met it head-on with a reckless explosion of power. The officer he had become saw a different solution.
The Hollow swung a fist the size of a small car, aiming to pulp him. Akio didn't dodge. He didn't block.
"Utsusemi."
The fist passed through the afterimage he left behind. The Hollow roared in confusion, its momentum carrying it forward. Akio reappeared ten feet to its left, his Zanpakutō still sheathed.
It charged again. Another Utsusemi. Another miss. He was herding it, letting its own rage and momentum build, leading it away from the main street and into a wider, emptier intersection.
"Enough," he stated.
He settled into a low, centered Iaijutsu stance. Kagegari was still in its scabbard. But the air around him began to warp, the light bending towards the blade as if being swallowed. This wasn't the wild, jagged "Void-Cut" of his academy days. This was something refined, compressed, and lethally precise. He had practiced this for countless hours within the Hakoniwa no Kagami, learning to contain the void, not just unleash it.
The Hollow, sensing the gathering power, finally stopped its charge and opened its maw, a raging ball of red energy—a Cero—coalescing between its horns.
The Cero fired, a thick beam of annihilation screaming towards him.
Akio drew.
There was no deafening roar, no blinding flash. There was only a whisper of steel and a sliver of absolute darkness, a crescent moon of nothingness that flew from his blade. It was so thin, so controlled, it seemed to slice through the very concept of sound and light. The Void-Cut met the Cero not with a clash, but with erasure. The raging red energy was unmade, dissolving into silent motes of fading spirit particles as the dark crescent passed through it without resistance.
It continued its path, a line of perfect void that intersected the Hollow's neck. The beast took one more step, its expression of rage frozen, before its head slid cleanly from its shoulders. The body dissolved into black ash before it even hit the ground, the Konsō happening automatically from the purity of the cut.
Silence returned to the street, broken only by the faint cries of the saved Plus souls and the panting of his team.
Akio stood, sheathing Kagegari with a soft click. The battle was over. The wave was broken. He turned to his team, his expression unchanged, but a flicker of approval in his eyes.
"Report."
"All Plus souls secured, sir," Anzu said, her voice filled with awe. "No casualties."
"Hollows eliminated," Choji added, a proud smile on his face.
Kito just grunted, nodding once.
Akio looked towards the epicenter of the spiritual disturbance, the point from which the wave had emanated. The Bait was gone, likely consumed or retrieved. But the message was received. The experiment was over. For now.