— — — — — —
"Unbelievable. After being sealed for a million years, you've slipped free of the Royal Guard's control. But that's good. This rotten, festering Soul Society needs you to set it right."
"Father, if you need a blade to carve out the decaying flesh, then I, your beloved son Yhwach, am the blade most suited for the task."
"Starting now. Starting with cleansing the Shinigami. Starting with killing Yamamoto Genryūsai."
While Yhwach delivered his rousing speech, Ryo slowly returned to his senses and looked at him with an amused expression.
"Sounds pretty good, actually."
His tone was layered with meaning.
Yhwach, however, looked completely earnest, as if he were acting out of pure devotion.
Maybe anyone else would've bought it. Maybe even someone with the ability to see the future would have been fooled.
But Ryo was… a little special.
He wasn't reading the future through Yhwach's Almighty; he was seeing it through his own anti-divination authority from the Sun Authority. Because of that, he and Yhwach were essentially sharing the same perspective of the future.
And in that shared view, Yhwach was frantically searching for the method to devour Ryo Yagami— the "Soul King" who had broken free.
This man had never once considered cooperation or submission.
The only thing Yhwach desired was to consume the Soul King and take the throne.
Ryo held his Zanpakutō and looked at him calmly.
"My son…" Ryo's mocking smile was barely hidden. "You think you can become the Soul King?"
Yhwach froze, then a wild joy surged in his heart.
Could it be… the Soul King hadn't abandoned the idea of ending his own life?
It seemed entirely possible.
The Soul King, turned into a living sacrifice by Ichibe Hyōsube and the founders of the Five Noble Houses, had been endlessly stabilizing the worlds for a million years, forced into a system that filtered souls into reishi.
Long ago, those unending eons of pain had crushed his will to survive.
That was why he had created Yhwach, and later Ichigo Kurosaki.
Even if he had escaped part of his seal now, perhaps he no longer wished to continue living.
That explanation made sense.
Thinking this, Yhwach couldn't help but scan the futures again, searching for the possibility that the Soul King would simply surrender and allow himself to be eaten.
And in every path he could see… that possibility filled the future.
Unable to contain himself, Yhwach answered at once. "If that is your wish, Father, then I shall gladly take on the responsibility of becoming the Soul King!"
"That's wonderful news." Ryo smiled faintly, raised his sword, and lifted it high.
Then—
He swung.
It all happened in a single instant.
Before Yhwach even registered what was happening, his legs were already gone.
"Fa—" Yhwach had just opened his mouth when he saw two fingers.
Ryo's index and middle fingers, almost touching his eyeballs.
A sickening sound echoed.
Yhwach's eyes were dug out.
"Dear."
The word fell just as Ryo sliced off his tongue.
Even a fool would understand by now what "becoming the Soul King" meant.
Severing limbs. Removing organs. Digging out the eyes and ears. Cutting the tongue. Enclosing the body in a spiritual pillar. Then forcing Quincy reishi control to its extreme limits, binding it with the souls of countless humans tainted by hollow and Shinigami influence.
This was how one became the Soul King.
'Why…' Yhwach cried out with his soul.
"Why does every future I see fail? Why does it keep going wrong? WHY?!"
His spirit shook so violently that the air trembled, spreading his anguished voice far and wide.
Ryo spoke with a teasing calm. "Yhwach, you never considered the possibility that someone could interfere with the future you see?"
"…!"
Yhwach's voice stopped abruptly.
Ryo pulled out the right arm he had taken from Ukitake Jushiro, Mimihagi, and activated its ability of substitution, replacing the Soul King in the Palace above.
As this happened, his tone carried both pity and mockery. "No one ever told you not to rely so much on the future?"
Yhwach's soul wavered.
He saw the future of himself drowning in black sludge.
He roared with all the hatred he could muster: "Ryo Yagami, I curse you. I curse this world. I will curse all of you for all eternity!"
Dark spirits poured from the sky.
A mass of pitch-black spiritual sludge with countless staring eyes.
The lingering curse of all the humans whose souls the Soul King had absorbed.
"So this is the so-called Soul King?"
Ryo looked at the half-sealed Yhwach with a steady gaze.
"How tiny…" He sighed softly, then smiled again. "But for a false identity, you're more than enough."
He glanced downward at the ruined buildings beneath him.
Below, the members of the Royal Guard stood on cracked tiles, staring up in shock as Yhwach transformed into the Soul King.
"Oh? Our audience has arrived."
Ryo gave them a brief look, then reached into his robes and pulled out a golden pocket watch. He checked the hands.
They pointed exactly at twelve. "Looks like the time has come."
He smiled down at them.
— — —
"Monk, that's the Soul King, right?"
Kirio Hikifune watched the crystallizing Yhwach above and felt her eyelid twitch.
"…Most likely." Ichibe replied in a complicated tone.
"What do you mean, most likely?" Hikifune snapped. "Explain what's going on!"
"It should be the right hand's ability." Ōetsu Nimaiya spoke in an odd voice. "Looks like Ryo stole the right hand's power and used it to replace the Soul King with Yhwach."
Hearing this, Senjumaru Shutara sighed. "So the Soul King's wish is finally coming true."
With the flood of souls gone, the Soul King in the Palace must have regained some movement. And with his desire to die… he'd probably end his life the moment he could.
"So what do we do now?" Hikifune groaned.
They had planned to team up with Yhwach, but by the time they arrived, the Quincy ancestor had already been taken care of.
Couldn't he have lasted a little longer?
"Don't panic. I'm thinking…" Ichibe gripped his Zanpakutō.
At that moment, all of the Royal Guard heard Ryo's last words.
The time has come.
What time? What was supposed to happen?
Hikifune and Shutara shared a look—
And froze as they saw their own hands plunging through Kirinji and Ōetsu's chests.
"Hikifune?!" Kirinji shouted in disbelief.
"Shutara… you?" Ōetsu gasped.
"Shatter, Kyōka Suigetsu."
A relaxed voice echoed.
"What!"
Ichibe spun around, eyes wide, and saw Aizen Sosuke standing beside him.
Ichibe's pupils trembled.
So that was it.
The "time" Ryo mentioned wasn't meant for them. It was meant for the man standing right beside them.
From the moment Ichibe revived, through their strategizing, through their whole journey avoiding battlefields on their way to Yhwach…
This man had kept Kyōka Suigetsu active the entire time and walked right alongside them.
Aizen sheathed his blade with a soft smile. "Yes. The time has indeed come."
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