Cole wore a blissful look.
Hearing the gentle Flower-sister say such a shameful form of address… it was addicting.
Unohana, cheeks flushed, smiled "sweetly" at Cole, but her tone was slow and dangerous.
"Cole-kun, we can use kendo now, right?"
"Flower-sister, say it a few more times."
Cole grinned at Unohana.
She ground her silver teeth, gaze sharp. "Perhaps you don't know, but I can trigger potential in many… ways."
As she spoke, some force tore her clothing; pale skin flashed as crackling power coiled around her like lightning.
"Shunkai (Instant Unsealing)!?"
Cole blinked in surprise—then understood.
A big sister who'd lived for a millennium would of course have trump cards. She simply preferred pure battle and rarely used them.
So Cole shelved his bullying thoughts, leaned close to her ear, and whispered,
"Flower-sister, if I win… on the bed could you kneel first, then do this, then that, and finally that…"
Danger flickered in Unohana's eyes as she stared at this brat who wanted to thoroughly defile her.
She was the unparalleled villain of ages, and even now the captain of Squad 4—
and this brat wanted her to do such shameful things.
Seeing her expression, Cole hurried on, "Flower-sister, don't tell me you don't dare. I already released the Chinkai Shinshin (Sea-Calming Pin) field."
Unohana licked her lips. "What would I not dare? But Cole-kun, be prepared—I won't hold back so much this time."
"Don't worry."
A razor slash screamed in.
Cole's gaze hardened; he slid back a step and swung the golden staff, meeting it with pure swordcraft.
Clang!
Steel shrieked; the blood pool heaved in tidal waves.
In a heartbeat they traded hundreds of kendo clashes, dozens of blows biting into each other's bodies.
Unohana cycled through three thousand styles—ghostly and deadly.
Cole had only one school, but he'd maxed it out; each cut seemed to cleave the very air.
Gashes and staff-welts bloomed on both of them, blood streaming and merging into the crimson pool.
Slaughter peaked in an instant; their weapons left afterimages woven through the air.
Blood poured like it cost nothing—
anywhere else, either would have died hundreds of times from blood loss alone.
Rukia, Soi Fong, and Orihime watched with their hearts in their throats—
especially Orihime, eyes brimming as she gazed at Cole.
At the center, Unohana grew more excited the more they fought, face feverish, on the brink of ecstasy—
her spirit soaring.
This was the duel she craved.
Cole's kendo had climbed to the lower tiers of the tenth dan; the clash was sheer delight.
"Cole-kun, wonderful… my body feels so hot…"
Her voice trembled with pleasure—yet her Minazuki still carved several bone-deep cuts into Cole.
Pain lanced him, but excitement surged too—
with the pain, the malice inside him began to boil.
Unnoticed, his blue reiryoku darkened to black-red.
The aura of evil and despair chilled the onlookers.
By the pool, Rukia swallowed and whispered to Soi Fong,
"Captain Soi Fong… doesn't Cole's reiatsu feel like a hollow's? It's especially dark."
"Not like—" Soi Fong's gaze grew grave. "It's the same as when that Kurosaki Ichigo erupted with hollow power."
Hollows are born when the heart falls.
Right now Cole felt like spirit and flesh were sinking downward—
yet his power climbed perversely higher.
Orihime clenched her hands. "Then what do we do? Is Cole-kun going to become a hollow?"
"We have to stop him—"
Before Soi Fong could finish, Cole flickered from the blood pool to Orihime's side.
"It's fine, Orihime."
He hooked an arm around her, planted a quick kiss on her cheek, and smiled.
"With you here, no matter what I turn into, you can fix me, right?"
Orihime turned apple-red, eyes hazy, going limp in his arms.
Cole-kun… kissed her again.
"What are you doing!?" Rukia snapped.
"Right in front of me, you're clinging to Orihime!?"
Cole stepped in, wrapped the "furious" Rukia up, and—under her wide, stunned eyes—boldly sealed her lips.
"Mm!"
Rukia's eyes flew wide.
What had gotten into Cole today?
Soi Fong couldn't help herself. "Cole, aren't you afraid Captain Byakuya will kill you?"
Smack!
Soi Fong stared, stunned.
This impudent brat… dared swat her backside?
Cole lowered his hand, annoyed. "Be quiet already, you lily girl. Think I'm scared of that walking iceberg?"
Soi Fong trembled with fury. "Call me a lily again and you won't live to regret it!"
Cole stamped a step; in a blur his face was inches from hers, an arm snaking around her waist.
"What, aren't you a lily? Honestly, I'd like to 'turn you,' you're too pretty."
Under her dazed stare, he gave her pale skin a light nip.
"Soft."
"Cole!!"
Soi Fong finally reacted, swinging her zanpakuto down on his head—
and it rang like striking iron.
Only then did the three notice white material seeping over Cole's body, a white-and-red mask about to form.
His aura grew fouler—turning hollow.
Rukia recovered first, embarrassment forgotten. "It's hollowfication! Why—why is Cole suddenly hollowfying!?"
Soi Fong froze up; she'd become captain a bit over a century ago. Though she'd studied the old hollowfication incident, records on Shinji and the rest were nonexistent.
Seeing their panic, Cole glanced at the white-red stuff on his hand and laughed.
"You think this can control me? Don't joke. How could I be controlled by something like this?"
He tapped the pale growth on his face with the golden staff—
and it shattered.
Rukia finally exhaled. "Then don't just stand there—end that state already!"
"What's the rush?"
Cole tightened his fist. "Like this, I feel way stronger—almost thirty percent up."
As he spoke, the hollowfication advanced.
Pale mask crept from his eye to his cheek, spreading along his face.
His reiatsu pressed down—heavy, terrifying.
"Cole-kun, naughty," Unohana's voice floated from behind. "How can you flirt with other girls mid-fight?"
Scarlet blood surged into a slash, cleaving like Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshō (Moon-Fang Heaven-Piercer).
Cole didn't even turn; his right hand snapped back and caught it clean.
"Pesquisa (Probe Circuit)…"
Unohana's pupils tightened—an Adjuchas-level hollow ability.
Then he vanished and reappeared at an impossible angle.
"Sonído (Sound Step)!" she recognized—
unlike shinigami hoho (flash step), this Adjuchas instinct could skip across space.
Clang!
Cole's staff hammered Minazuki, weight and force crushing it down.
"My power… jumped a lot…"
Unohana stared. "Did you secretly use your zanpakuto again!?"
"Nope."
Cole laughed louder. "I don't need it. With sword alone, I can suppress you."
Inside this state, he poured his remaining reiryoku straight into his kendo stat.
In a blink, his offense became even more vicious.
He still hadn't surpassed Unohana's pure technique—
but coupled with weight and strength, he pressed her completely.
"You—"
Her protest cut off as the golden staff darted in a pinpoint thrust.
Bang!!
The unparalleled villainess was blasted into the air.
Before she could splash down, Cole was already above her—
Boom!
Power crashed her deep into the blood pool, geysers spraying.
He dove after her; staff and blade howled in a blur.
Moments later, Unohana was flung skyward again.
In just a few seconds she'd been smashed away several times, her wounds struggling to knit.
Rukia and Soi Fong moved to help—
but in simple shikai they were swatted back dozens of meters by two lazy taps of the staff.
"Stay out of it," Unohana snapped, slashing. "This is my fight."
Their duel burned hotter; cuts multiplied on Unohana's body, yet her eyes only grew hotter, more obsessed—
face reddening, teeth catching her lip.
She seemed to reach the peak of rapture.
"Cole, harder… you can still fight with me, right? You can still get stronger, right…?"
She moaned like a yandere, Minazuki whipping madly.
"Make your sword stronger—let me see the kendo that lies above mine. Show me the extreme."
Another smash of the golden staff hammered her to the pool's rim.
She started to rise—then felt a crushing weight.
Her body turned several times heavier at once; wounds refused to close.
"Cole, you used your zanpakuto again!"
Before she could stand, Cole blinked in front of her, the golden staff tipping her chin up.
"Masochist. You've lost."
Unohana remembered their bet—
if she lost a kendo duel, she'd pay up with all those shameful services.
"Then wait until our fight is—"
"Who do you think you're talking to?"
Cole's reiatsu exploded; black-red power raged, turning Minazuki's world into true hell.
Orihime, the weakest present and still stunned, collapsed to her knees with a thud.
Cold sweat beaded on Rukia's brow.
Only Soi Fong still stood firm.
"Here, only I rule."
Unohana slashed up at his imperious, domineering face—
Smack!
He caught her blade in one hand.
Their gazes locked; Cole looked down at her, feral.
"Masochist—going back on your word?"
She swallowed. Ecstasy's afterglow and Cole's eyes set her whole self thrumming.
Following the wager, her body slowly sank into a crouch.
(Three thousand words omitted)
Rukia and Soi Fong, faces burning, wanted to look away—yet couldn't quite lift their eyes.
Hours later—
Unohana lay panting, wounds everywhere, not a finger's strength left.
Cole, also scored with cuts, didn't mind; at a thought, his injuries vanished.
By then he was more than half transformed into a great hollow.
White-red mask covered half his face; a hole gaped in his chest; hands tapered to talons;
white plating crusted his arms; black-red wings unfurled behind him.
"So ugly."
Cole scowled and cracked the mask with his staff.
Crash.
The mask shattered.
So did the white plating on his arms, and the wings behind him vanished.
In an instant, he looked like a shinigami again—
but his pressure was still hollow's.
If Aizen saw it, he'd be shocked—
for Cole had become one who breaks the hollow mask:
an Arrancar-class Menos.
(End of Chapter)
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