"This guy…"
Kyoka Suigetsu's face went a little green. While backing away, he said,
"Katen Kyokotsu, I'll leave him to you."
He really didn't want to fight Cole anymore. Obviously just a human as insignificant as an ant—yet his strength wasn't any worse than Shunsui's.
If he got tangled up, he might actually be in danger.
Seeing this, Aizen, seated on the throne in Las Noches, wore a rare grim look and stared coldly at Mizukagami (Water Mirror).
"Trash…"
It had mimicked his reiatsu, his ability, even his appearance—
and still got scared off by a mere human.
It was his disgrace.
Beside him, Gin smiled with those crescent eyes and said nothing.
He'd followed Aizen for centuries and knew the man to the bone.
In this proud man's heart, he acknowledged only Kisuke. Everyone else—Shinigami and Hollow alike—was garbage in his eyes.
And humans were the lowliest of all.
Even frightening a zanpakuto—if the cause was a human—would fill him with rage.
"Truly shameful, Aizen," Gin mocked inwardly.
…
"Clang!"
The golden staff came down again.
The onee-san aspect of Katen was swatted away, smashing a crater into the ground. Blood gushed from her mouth.
Kyokotsu, enraged, slashed for Cole's neck.
Cole slid back and tapped his right index finger to Kyokotsu's chest, grinning:
"Kyokotsu, that mad already… Byakurai (White Lightning)!"
A blinding white bolt flashed.
Even though Kyokotsu twisted away at the last instant, the white light still pierced her shoulder and hurled her into the earth.
Barely ten minutes had passed.
Yet Katen and Kyokotsu were already covered in wounds, struggling even to stand.
Paired with their stunning faces, they looked… pitifully fragile.
Katen snapped coquettishly, "Cole, you brat, you're hitting way too hard! What if you actually killed the two of us?"
Cole wasn't fooled by the act. He hefted the golden staff and laughed:
"Not my fault you're both too weak. When you Bankai'd, I truly jumped—never thought it would end up… this middling."
When their Bankai first unleashed, that sinking, abyssal despair had made even him shiver—the cold terror that clawed at one's soul.
He'd thought it was on par with the old man.
Who knew they'd be so weak once the fight started?
In just ten minutes, he'd nearly beaten them both half to death.
Kyokotsu almost choked with rage. Ignoring the pain, she shot Katen a glare.
"Katen, it's about time!?"
Katen ground her teeth, gauged her injuries, and hissed, "About time."
"What's 'about time'?"
Cole raised a brow—bad feeling prickling his spine.
From Ninth Division's direction, Shunsui came huffing up, shouting in panic:
"Cole, run! Don't look back—Katen Kyokotsu's ability is about to activate!"
"What abili—"
Before he finished, his pupils blew wide. A soul-ripping pain detonated in his mind.
"Graaahhh!!!"
Before stunned eyes, injuries blossomed across Cole's body from nowhere—
An arm twisted the wrong way; purple welts streaked his skin; a gaping hole tore through his shoulder.
Blood drenched his tracksuit in an instant.
It was like he'd been mobbed by a thousand people in a single breath—enough to make anyone's scalp crawl.
At the same moment, the wounds on Katen and Kyokotsu vanished.
The two rose, looking smugly at Cole.
"First Stage—Tsuratsura Chōshō Buntan (Hesitation—Wounds Shared)!"
Katen swung her long blade onto her shoulder, grinning. "Brat, now you see what happens when you underestimate us?"
Kyokotsu, holding the short blade, said coolly, "Those are the injuries you gave us—reflected back. Hurts, doesn't it?"
"Cole!!!"
Rukia cried out, frantic.
Beside her, Sode no Shirayuki forgot all about Suzumebachi and stamped her foot to sprint forward.
Yoruichi blurred in at top speed.
Ichigo roared and swung his blade, reiatsu surging like a storm.
But none were faster than Kyoka Suigetsu, already on scene. He flashed in front of Cole and thrust the silver-white blade for Cole's eye.
"Human, your death is at hand!"
Shunsui squeezed his eyes shut in despair, drowning in regret.
If only he'd revealed his Bankai's ability sooner.
Sajin and Soi Fong howled in unwilling fury—
Help from the World of the Living had finally arrived, and they were going to lose him because they hadn't known Shunsui's Bankai?
At the razor's edge between life and death, Cole suddenly snapped his eyes open and snarled through his teeth:
"Katen! Kyokotsu! You little b—! That hurt like hell! Even if you kneel and beg later, I won't forgive you!"
As he spoke, black-crimson reiatsu roared up around him. He bit down on Kyoka Suigetsu's blade.
"Cling!"
A clear ring of steel.
Kyoka Suigetsu gasped, ice filling his face.
By his reckoning, Cole's wounds were more than enough to kill a human ten times over—how could he still erupt with that kind of reiatsu?
Was this human… immortal?
The answer came quickly.
Behold—
Hollowfied Cole.
He became like a great Hollow—this world's embodied malice—
Black-crimson pressure flooded from him.
His wounds mended at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In a single second—
they were gone.
Kyoka Suigetsu croaked, "Kōsoku Jichiyu (Ultrafast Regeneration)…"
An ability that only Adjuchas-class Menos could awaken—
praised as a miracle: as long as one doesn't die, one recovers.
Even among the upper Hollows in Las Noches, few possessed it.
And before him, a mere human-turned-Shinigami, upon Hollowfication, had awakened Kōsoku Jichiyu.
Katen and Kyokotsu both turned pale.
"So fast…"
"That was a lethal wound…"
Feeling Cole's gaze still on them, a chill ran down their spines.
They could tell—
they were in for it.
But Cole drew his eyes back, clamping down on Kyoka Suigetsu and seizing both of his arms.
"Deal with you first…"
Black-crimson reiatsu coalesced in Cole's mouth, the crushing pressure promising to shatter heaven and earth.
Kyoka Suigetsu's face drained.
At this range, if he ate Cole's Cero (Hollow Flash), even if he wasn't pulverized, he'd be crippled.
"Let go of me, damn human—"
He yanked frantically, but Cole's ironclad grip wouldn't budge.
The next instant—
a blinding black-crimson burst.
Boom—
A hellish shockwave.
The raging beam blossomed, engulfing both Cole and Kyoka Suigetsu.
From afar, it looked like a black-crimson mushroom cloud blooming in the sky.
When the cloud thinned and the scene within showed, everyone sucked in a breath.
Both Cole and Kyoka Suigetsu were wrecked by the point-blank Cero.
Blood sheeted Cole's cheek.
Kyoka Suigetsu fared no better—charred black, and two or three cracks crawled along his blade.
A second later, Cole's body knit whole again. He grinned at Kyoka Suigetsu.
"How many more of those can you tank?"
A zanpakuto isn't a top Hollow—no Kōsoku Jichiyu.
Once broken, it's broken. It takes a long time to mend.
He, on the other hand, had Kōsoku Jichiyu.
He could eat dozens and still come back.
Terror flooded Kyoka Suigetsu's eyes. He babbled, "Cole, calm down! There's no need for us to fight to the death. With our power together, we could absolutely take down the Head-Captain and Aizen. Then all of Soul Society would be ours—"
"Useless."
In Las Noches, Aizen forced the word through his teeth, eyes like ice on Mizukagami.
He'd considered his zanpakuto might prove unworthy—
but hadn't imagined it would be this disgraceful.
Not only had it shamed his blade—
it had shamed Aizen himself.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became.
He even regretted allowing the zanpakuto to manifest.
It was mortifying.
Kisuke would die laughing.
For someone as proud as he was, to have his manifested zanpakuto be this pathetic—
Aizen clenched his jaw, rage blazing. He raised his right index finger at Mizukagami and said coldly:
"Byakurai (White Lightning)."
Whoosh—
A searing lance of white vanished and—Boom!
Mizukagami, along with the floor of Las Noches, was blasted to rubble, a pit nearly ten meters deep yawning where he'd stood.
The thunderous detonation rolled through the palace.
Done, Aizen stepped down from the throne without a backward glance. He had to forge the true Hogyoku—
to break the boundary between Shinigami and Hollow once and for all.
Only then could he cast aside this intolerable blade.
Moments later…
A crowd of upper Hollows hurried in.
Among them, with light blue cropped hair, sky-blue eyes, a white long coat unzipped at the chest, leaning forward like a blue panther—
Grimmjow swaggered into the hall.
He swept the dust-hazed chamber, fixed his gaze on Gin, and barked,
"Shinigami, what was that racket just now? Where's Aizen!?"
Still musing on the scene just past, Gin smiled his narrow smile.
"Grimmjow, you should address him as Lord Aizen."
Grimmjow snorted. "Cut the crap. With that bang, did a Shinigami break in?"
Gin let the rudeness slide. "Nope. Lord Aizen just lost his composure… because of one person."
Grimmjow blinked.
"Who!?"
Since he'd met Aizen, he'd never once seen the man lose control, like everything lay in his palm.
A certain human's face surfaced in Gin's mind, and his smile deepened.
"Cole. His name's Cole—a very interesting human. It's my first time seeing a human draw that big a reaction from Aizen…"
Cole.
A remarkable fellow indeed, Gin thought.
Boom—
Another point-blank Cero.
When the light cleared, Cole's wounds again zipped shut before the eye.
Kyoka Suigetsu looked even worse: more cracks veined the blade, as if a few more blasts would finish it.
Terror peaked.
He was Aizen's zanpakuto, bearer of Aizen's reiatsu.
He should have united with Muramasa to make zanpakuto manifestations that never faded, then led the blades to rule Soul Society—
march on Hueco Mundo—
and overthrow his own master, Aizen—
to ascend to the empty throne in the Royal Palace.
But now—
he was about to snap.
His manifested body would die with it—unable even to return to Aizen's side.
On the brink of hysteria, he tore futilely against Cole's grip and screamed hoarsely:
"Katen Kyokotsu! Sogyo no Kotowari! Senbonzakura! Come save me! Don't let me die to this guy—!"
"Se—Sei… and you—your master serves my master. You can't watch me die—!"
"Muramasa, save me—!"
Boom!
Another black-crimson Cero erupted.
The fractures on Kyoka Suigetsu's blade spread; his manifested body turned ashen.
Even Cole swayed a bit—several point-blank Cero were no joke, even for him.
Eyeing a blade that would take a few more to finally break, Cole couldn't help but whistle.
"Tough. As expected of a blade bearing Aizen's reiatsu. If you had Aizen's full toolkit, you really would be troublesome."
A zanpakuto is still not its Shinigami.
For instance, Kyoka Suigetsu couldn't use Aizen's overwhelming kido.
He began gathering another Cero.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
With the chain of explosions, Kyoka Suigetsu had no strength left to speak.
His wounded blade dragged his manifested body down with it.
Cole was drawing breath for one more when his face changed. He snapped back with a leap and cursed:
"Kisuke! If you can't help, fine—but how are you making it worse right now!?"
Boom!
Fire blossomed beside him—then a string of fireballs streaked in.
The caster stood not far away: a graceful woman in white robes, somewhat like Unohana in bearing.
Her looks alone might not give her away—but her reiatsu did.
Kisuke grimaced, retreating with a helpless shrug.
"Couldn't be helped. Time was too short—I couldn't make decent safeguards. Even my zanpakuto betrayed me."
He gave the elegant woman a headache-rub of a look.
"Benihime, you're my zanpakuto. You should be able to tell friend from foe, no?"
Benihime glanced at him coolly—then slashed. Hundreds, thousands of fireballs lit the sky.
"Kisuke, I haven't forgotten a single modification you performed on me."
Cole blinked, then shot Kisuke a glare and swore:
"Beast! What did you do to this beautiful zanpakuto?"
(End of Chapter)
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