From the moment the two appeared side by side, Shigure could tell they'd reconciled.
Soi Fon looked toward Shigure with an extremely serious expression.
After staring for a moment, she suddenly turned her head away.
"S-sorry, Segawa!"
She suddenly blurted this out, making everyone around react simultaneously.
Soi Fon's face immediately turned crimson as she spun around completely.
Yoruichi beside her laughed, patting her shoulder while looking at Shigure:
"This is just an apology for attacking you earlier, hahaha..."
Hearing this explanation, the others finally understood.
When Shigure had destroyed the Sōkyoku, Captain Soi Fon had indeed been extremely agitated.
Shigure's eyes moved as he chuckled softly.
"It's fine. Captain Soi Fon's reaction was completely normal. I wasn't angry."
Hearing this, Soi Fon still didn't turn around, only letting out a soft grunt.
Her personality remained unchanged.
Yoruichi watched Shigure for a moment, then chuckled again:
"Kisuke really didn't misjudge you."
"Seems like bringing Ichigo and the others here in such force was somewhat unnecessary."
Hearing this, Ukitake chuckled and shook his head.
"Lady Yoruichi, don't say that."
"Without your arrival, Captain Aizen... Aizen Sōsuke wouldn't have revealed his true face."
"That would have been an eternal threat to Seireitei."
Ukitake lowered his head slightly. When mentioning Aizen, he still habitually said "Captain," but immediately corrected himself.
Just as Shigure prepared to speak, Byakuya Kuchiki suddenly used flash step and vanished.
The next moment, his spiritual pressure appeared on a distant hill.
Ukitake looked that way, first stunned, then slapped his forehead with a wry smile.
"Really... because of Aizen, I almost forgot about Rukia."
"Let's go see."
With that, the group used flash step simultaneously.
However, seeing everyone approach, Rukia's eyes still seemed slightly dazed.
Even so, her gaze was undoubtedly fixed on Shigure.
Because she'd just witnessed everything that happened from here.
Though Rukia didn't know exactly what Shigure had done, she knew he'd used less than ten seconds to defeat two captains with his Zanpakutō!
And left Aizen completely unable to fight back.
This scene was beyond even imagining, let alone witnessing.
Shigure's power had long exceeded her imagination.
Now, seeing Aizen's trio escape, she finally understood Shigure's strange actions before.
When first imprisoned in the 1st Division jail, she'd asked Shigure to protect the 13th Division for her.
But Shigure had answered that she could do it herself.
At the time, she hadn't understood his meaning, thinking he was comforting her.
But only now did she suddenly realize...
From the beginning, Shigure had known her execution wouldn't succeed.
Or rather, he'd already planned to disrupt it.
Thinking this, Rukia's pupils trembled as she looked at Shigure.
After a moment, she lowered her head and spoke softly:
"Th... thank you, Lieutenant Segawa..."
She had so much to say, so much gratitude to express.
But when the words reached her lips, she couldn't speak them.
In the end, only pale thanks remained.
Shigure showed a gentle smile.
"You're welcome, Rukia."
Meanwhile, in Hueco Mundo.
In a desolate desert, white walls stood jagged as sand swirled.
A vast, enormous palace stood abruptly among them.
In the surrounding areas, small Hollow creatures moved aimlessly beneath withered branches.
They sought regions with higher spiritual particle density.
Though the distant palace clearly contained more abundant spiritual particle auras, they never dared approach.
That was Las Noches.
At this moment, three figures waited in the palace's innermost chamber.
Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tōsen stood on the left and right sides.
Aizen Sōsuke sat on the central throne.
"Your spiritual power should have recovered by now?"
Aizen spoke softly.
Hearing this, Tōsen immediately bowed his head, speaking respectfully with apology:
"Recovery has begun. The rate of spiritual power decomposition in my body has almost stopped."
"My deepest apologies, Lord Aizen!"
"I failed to eliminate him for you in the recent battle."
They had indeed been careless.
If they'd been prepared for Shigure's attacks beforehand, they wouldn't have been directly hit by the Spirit-Collapsing Thunder Sword, immediately losing combat ability.
Tōsen felt Aizen would surely scold him, so he apologized preemptively.
Unexpectedly, Aizen chuckled instead.
"You're wrong, Kaname."
"Eliminating him isn't as simple as you think."
"His strength is undoubtedly above both of you currently."
Hearing this, Tōsen's expression changed as he bowed deeper.
"Forgive me... I was somewhat arrogant."
"No matter."
Aizen stood lightly, walking forward while chuckling:
"If you'd actually killed him just now, I would have been somewhat disappointed."
"After all, from two months ago, the second day after he joined the 5th Division, I became curious about his soul's anomaly."
As his words fell, Gin behind him showed a momentary change in expression.
He'd never heard Aizen mention this before.
"Captain Aizen, what anomaly do you mean?"
Though they'd left Seireitei, his form of address remained unchanged.
Aizen didn't mind, answering:
"His soul is completely different from every soul we've encountered before."
"The aura it carries brings an entirely new sensation."
Hearing this, Tōsen immediately froze.
"Wh... what?"
Thank you to every friend who stayed up waiting for updates. Merry Christmas.
Taking the advice from comments section. From now on, I won't reply to every comment message immediately.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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