"Rumble!!!"
The massive Zero Division Palace roared with a deafening boom.
Before everyone's eyes, a jagged crack split across the surface of the palace, the lingering sword pressure of that white slash rampaging wantonly along it.
The entire Zero Division Palace had almost been cut clean in half.
Countless bricks and rubble, grass and trees, soil and dust poured down as if the very firmament had collapsed, cascading like a heavenly waterfall from the sky.
They crashed down in a clattering torrent.
Shunsui and the others all had to dodge frantically to keep from being smashed by the falling debris.
As Kisuke ducked to the side, he tilted his head back to look at the sky, swallowed hard, and muttered, "This reiatsu… should be Aizen. Is there really no one stopping him!?"
He had originally assumed that once Aizen forced his way into the Soul King Palace, he would inevitably be subdued by the Royal Guard.
But from the looks of it now…
Things were not at all as he had imagined.
"Aizen, you bastard…"
An enraged female voice rang out from atop the shattered Zero Division Palace.
Up above, on the broken palace, countless plants suddenly sprouted into existence. Thick wooden trunks burst up from the ground and extended wildly in all directions.
In the blink of an eye, an especially gigantic tree appeared over the Zero Division Palace.
Its brown roots spread and interwove like mad, and directly on the surface of the palace, they formed a colossal cage made entirely of living wood.
"That is…"
Shunsui's pupils shrank as he recognized the source of that wooden prison.
"Kirio-san's ability."
Even Kisuke was surprised. "So that Zero Division Palace up there… is actually Kirio-san's palace!?"
Shinji said helplessly, "What kind of coincidence is that? Of all people, it just had to be Kirio-san who ran into Aizen. I'm afraid she's not his match…"
Nanao looked at Shunsui in confusion. "Captain, didn't you say you weren't familiar with the Royal Guard?"
Shunsui sighed and explained to his dear niece, "Kirio-san is different. She only joined Seireitei a little over a hundred years ago. She used to be very close with all of us."
Nanao's small mouth fell open in shock.
She had always assumed every member of the Royal Guard was some ancient monster who'd lived for thousands or tens of thousands of years.
She had never expected there to be a newcomer who'd only joined the Royal Guard a century ago.
Kisuke thought back to the past and sighed emotionally.
"Kirio-san, huh… It really has been a long time. Close to a hundred years already, right? I wonder what new things she's managed to research by now."
Meeting Nanao's curious gaze, Shunsui had no choice but to continue his little lecture.
"Kirio-san used to serve as the 12th Division Captain before Kisuke. The modified soul pills were her creation."
Nanao suddenly understood.
So Kirio had been the 12th Division Captain before Kisuke's tenure. No wonder the two of them seemed so familiar with each other.
"What kind of person is she?"
Nanao asked nervously.
Having already met the Eastern God General Tenjiro in the Soul King Palace, she was truly worried that all of the Royal Guard might turn out to be a bunch of eccentrics.
If that were the case, then the Soul Society really would be doomed.
"What kind of person, huh…"
Shunsui stroked his chin, pondered for a moment, and then gave a very high evaluation:
"An absolute peerless beauty."
Nanao's expression went instantly dark. She yanked out Shinken Hanki and smacked him on the head.
"That's not what I was asking about!"
Kisuke thought for a moment and added, "She's incredibly intelligent and extremely gentle. She treats everyone and everything with genuine warmth and kindness."
Byakuya said coolly, "If I had to put it simply, she's a truly formidable woman."
Listening to the three captains' descriptions, all the Shinigami present already had a rough sketch of Kirio in their hearts.
Beautiful, graceful, kind, gentle, a big-sister type who was warm and enthusiastic toward others.
Nanao's eyes shone with admiration.
Powerful female Shinigami in Seireitei were few and far between, and this newly mentioned Kirio was clearly a first-rate female powerhouse.
"I really want to meet Kirio-san…"
Just as Nanao was sighing to herself, another thunderous boom echoed from the Zero Division Palace.
The towering wooden cage formed by the roots exploded skyward.
An endless rain of wood chips and splinters fluttered down like a brown shower, dyeing the air above them in a bleak, desolate hue.
A white-robed figure plummeted from the Zero Division Palace like a falling meteor.
With a resounding crash, the distant ground was blasted into a massive crater.
Everyone on the scene jumped in fright and hurriedly rushed toward the pit.
On the way there, Kisuke had already sensed the reiatsu of that person. A flash of anxiety crossed his eyes.
"Kirio-san, are you alright!?"
Nanao, startled, quickly ran toward the crater as well.
"Is that Kirio-san!?"
The human-shaped crater was blasted dozens of meters deep and was pitch-black inside. Just as everyone gathered around the edge, a woman's voice drifted up from within.
"Kisuke, is that you? I'm fine!"
With that, a plump figure leaped out of the darkness and landed steadily on the soil at the rim of the pit.
Nanao stared up at her in unbridled admiration—
But the moment she clearly saw the newcomer's appearance, her expression froze in utter shock.
"This is… Kirio-san!?"
The female Shinigami before her, at a single glance, was plump from head to toe, round and soft all over. She had to be at least three or four hundred pounds.
She certainly looked gentle and kind… but she didn't seem to match the word "beauty" at all.
Nanao reflexively turned to look at Shunsui.
She had never realized her uncle had such a peculiar preference— not for slender girls, but for chubby big-sister types instead.
Then what did all those nights of drinking with hostesses at the izakaya mean?
Did he… not discriminate between "meat" and "vegetables" at all!?
But to her surprise, she discovered that Shunsui, Kisuke, Shinji, Byakuya…
All of them were staring at Kirio with looks of sheer disbelief.
Shunsui even rubbed his eyes, dumbfounded.
"Kirio, how… how did you end up like this?"
In his memories, Kirio had long, fluffy pink wavy hair, and a voluptuous, perfectly curvy figure.
How had her body shape completely gone off the rails like this?
Shinji muttered dryly, "No way… Is the food in the Royal Guard's cafeteria really that good!?"
Kisuke, at least, remained the most serious. He ventured cautiously, "Kirio-san, did some experiment of yours go wrong?"
Kirio narrowed her eyes and smiled.
"Not at all. This is just my current body shape. How is it? Not bad, right? I've stored a lot of calories inside my body."
All the Shinigami present wore awkward expressions.
No one could bring themselves to offer a single positive comment.
Suddenly, something occurred to Shinji. His expression turned grave, and he stared at Kirio with newfound seriousness.
"Kirio-san, you just ran into Aizen, didn't you? How did it go? Did you defeat that damned bastard?"
The moment Aizen's name came up, Kirio's cheeks puffed up in anger.
"Shinji, I was about to ask you the same thing. Why did your former lieutenant break into the Soul King Palace and attack me the moment he showed up?"
When she had sensed someone intruding upon the Soul King Palace, she'd immediately rushed to the crack in the barrier.
Only a few seconds later, Aizen charged in at high speed, and the two of them started fighting without exchanging a single word.
They battled all the way from the entrance to the Zero Division Palace.
In the end, her palace had nearly been shattered, and the life barrier she'd erected hadn't helped in the slightest.
She herself had fared the worst, nearly being killed outright by Aizen.
Shinji coughed awkwardly.
"Kirio-san, don't tell me you don't know anything about what's happened in the Soul Society?"
Kirio frowned in confusion.
"I heard that the zanpakuto rebelled, but I don't really know the details about Aizen. Back when I was in the Soul Society, Aizen was still my lieutenant, you know."
Back then, Aizen had been Shinji's lieutenant.
At the time, he had been gentle and amiable, polite and well-mannered, the kind of person who'd draw compliments from everyone for his warmth and kindness.
It was hard to imagine someone like that betraying the Soul Society.
Every Shinigami present suddenly felt an intense urge to track down Senjumaru and beat her to a pulp.
You already came down to the Soul Society once!
How could you not bring back a single piece of intel!?
After Shunsui had finished explaining the entire chain of events from beginning to end, his expression turned extremely solemn.
"Not even you could stop Aizen, and Tenjiro was defeated as well… Could it be that Aizen has already reached the Soul King's Inner Sanctum?"
As he spoke, he looked up at the sacred cylindrical structure floating in the sky, with cone-like points at both ends.
That was the Soul King's Inner Sanctum—
The place where the Soul King "resided."
If Aizen really managed to reach the Soul King's Inner Sanctum, then the three worlds might very well be completely destroyed today.
Kirio waved her hand and smiled.
"You don't need to be that nervous. I couldn't beat Aizen because I'm not a combat type. But the others are really strong, especially Oetsu."
Shunsui and Kisuke both nodded involuntarily.
They were well aware of Oetsu's background.
Seeing that Shinji knew nothing about it, they deliberately gave him a quick explanation.
Shunsui said, "Oetsu is the Third Officer, the Western God General, known as the 'Sword God,' and the manager of the Phoenix Palace."
Kisuke added, "You might not fully grasp what that means, but you only need to remember one thing— he's the creator of the zanpakuto."
Shinji sucked in a sharp breath and instinctively drew his zanpakuto, Sakanade.
"Zanpakuto… actually have a creator!?"
He had always believed that zanpakuto were weapons cultivated and created by each Shinigami, partners bound to their souls.
Yet now Kisuke was telling him that zanpakuto hadn't simply appeared from nowhere—
There was a so-called creator behind them.
Byakuya said coldly, "Foolish. Of course zanpakuto have a creator. The zanpakuto you wield were all forged by his own hands."
All the Shinigami present froze in shock.
All zanpakuto had been made by someone?
Then what did that make their relationship with their blades?
Kisuke coughed lightly.
"There's no need to be that shaken. Oetsu only forges the initial form of the zanpakuto. Everything after that is created by you yourselves."
Only then did the Shinigami finally breathe a sigh of relief.
If even the souls of their zanpakuto had been crafted by Oetsu, they truly wouldn't know how to face their blades anymore.
They couldn't exactly say that their zanpakuto helped them purely because Oetsu had ordered them to, could they?
Wouldn't that make them walking cuckolds, obeying their "original master's" orders?
"'Sword God,' huh…"
A spark of excitement flickered in Shinji's eyes.
"If he's the origin of all zanpakuto, his strength must be terrifying."
For Shinigami, nearly eighty percent of their combat power lay in their zanpakuto.
Take Yamamoto, for example.
Although his own physical strength and reiatsu were formidable, his true combat power was overwhelmingly tied to his bankai.
So if Oetsu was known as the Sword God, his combat ability was beyond question.
Kirio nodded with a smile.
"That's right, Oetsu is very strong. He's gone to deal with the first intruder right now. Once he's finished handling those two, he'll be able to go deal with Aizen."
All of the Shinigami present nodded in agreement.
Then…
They suddenly realized something was very wrong.
"The first intruder!!!"
Kisuke stared at Kirio, his eyes almost popping out of his head.
The eyelids of all the other Shinigami twitched furiously as a terrible sense of foreboding welled up in their hearts.
If they remembered correctly…
The ones who had entered the Soul King Palace before Aizen were, very likely, Cole and Rukia.
Kirio was startled by their reactions.
"What's wrong with you all? Why are you suddenly reacting like that?"
Cold sweat beaded on Shunsui's forehead as he hurriedly said, "Captain Kirio, there's no time to hesitate. Quickly, tell me which Zero Division Palace Oetsu is on. If you don't say it now, it'll be too late."
Just imagining Cole fighting Oetsu made his scalp tingle.
Oetsu was going to be beaten to death, wasn't he?
Kisuke was equally anxious.
"The chances they'll really fight shouldn't be that high, right? After all, Rukia is there."
Byakuya said in a low voice, "Don't forget Cole's current state. Right now, he looks more like a Hollow than a Shinigami."
Ever since he had entered his Hollow form, Cole had maintained that appearance.
A Hollow hole gaped in his chest, and he radiated a thick, Hollow-like reiatsu.
He was the textbook image of a Vasto Lorde-class Hollow.
Sweat ran down Shinji's face as he urged Kirio on as well.
"Kirio-san, hurry up and use Tenchi Kairo (Heavenly Uplift Airway)! Get Oetsu to calm down and not attack those two. Otherwise, he's going to die."
Kirio was thrown into a full-blown panic.
What kind of monsters had the Soul Society produced this time?
First there was Aizen, who could topple two members of the Royal Guard.
And now there was another monster who could apparently kill Oetsu.
She had only left Seireitei a hundred years ago to join the Royal Guard…
Had Seireitei really developed this much in just a century!?
Just as she was about to send a transmission, a golden light erupted from another Zero Division Palace.
A towering golden pillar thrust up into the sky.
That golden pillar suddenly swung with tremendous force.
With a thunderous boom, a figure let out a shrill scream and plummeted from the Zero Division Palace like a meteor.
"Boom!!!"
The impact sounded like the end of the world.
Everyone listened to the roar and watched the dust clouds rising in the far distance.
Shunsui, Kisuke, Isshin, Ichigo, Shinji, Byakuya…
All of them fell silent at the same time.
Then, quietly, they pressed their hands together in prayer for three full minutes for the Sword God—
The Western God General, Oetsu, whom they had yet to even meet.
Poor Soul King Palace… Poor Western God General.
May he rest in peace on his way to the other side.
(End of Chapter)
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