Snap!
The crisp clap rang out like the opening note of a battle song, striking straight into everyone's chest. Frozen hearts, crushed by despair, began to beat again.
"Da, da, da..."
The boy in white passed Omaeda, walking slowly toward Aizen.
"Boom, boom, boom—"
Each step thundered like a war drum, reverberating through every soul still breathing.
As the boy emerged fully from the light, taking the "torch" from Omaeda's hands, countless emotions burst from the hearts of the onlookers.
Sui-Feng was already sobbing. Tears blurred her vision, but she didn't need to see clearly. The moment that spring-like voice reached her ears, she knew.
He had come.
He was late, but he came.
That was enough.
"This guy... always with his dramatic timing," Kyoraku Shunsui chuckled faintly, gaze never leaving the boy's back. "I was starting to think Kurotsuchi was next to show up."
A rare light flickered in his eyes—half laughter, half relief.
Urahara Kisuke smiled weakly, a long exhale escaping his pale lips. "Finally... you made us wait long enough."
Yamamoto Genryūsai said nothing. The old man's sharp gaze softened, filled with quiet pride as he stared at his most brilliant disciple.
At that moment, all eyes turned toward the young man who had returned from the light. No one dared blink.
A boy—yet brighter than the stars. The sole light left between heaven and earth.
Su Li.
The last gatekeeper of the Soul Society.
Not Akon. Not Tessai. Not Omaeda.
Only him.
He alone stood as the final barrier of the empire.
When light walks toward the night, the night must, in turn, face the light.
Aizen Sōsuke's calm eyes followed the youth's approach, emotion flickering faintly within their depths. Countless memories flashed through his mind—first astonishment, then curiosity, suspicion, confrontation—until now, when the boy stood before him once more, barring his path.
From beginning to end, the boy had shaken the world.
Aizen's plan had always accounted for him—the single unpredictable variable, the most stubborn obstacle.
He should have realized earlier that the boy would appear.
If Aizen was to break through the world's limits, how could the true gatekeeper not come to stop him?
Grimmjow couldn't stop him.
Nnoitra couldn't.
Even Ulquiorra couldn't.
Su Li would always cut through their walls, step by step, until he stood here.
Aizen exhaled slowly, a faint, almost peaceful smile curling his lips.
He understood now—he had been waiting for this.
Defeating the Gotei 13, crushing the captains, subduing the Visoreds—it was all to reach this boy.
Only by defeating Su Li could Aizen ascend beyond the heavens.
Only through him could Aizen go straight up to the sky.
"Da, da, da..."
Su Li's steady footsteps drew closer.
"Boom, boom, boom..."
The rhythm of war drums grew heavier. With each beat, the air thickened, tension twisting like a bowstring pulled to breaking.
"Plop, plop, plop..."
Hearts pounded wildly, throbbing against ribs, unable to stay still.
Clatter.
Su Li stopped before Aizen.
Boom!
The last drumbeat fell, heavier than all before.
And then—silence.
The world seemed to hold its breath. Even the wind dared not move.
The man and the boy faced one another, eyes locked, the meaning between them unspoken yet absolute.
This was fate.
A duel that would decide not only their lives—but the future of all three realms.
"I've been waiting for you," Aizen said quietly, indifference returning to his voice, though the undertone carried weight. He had waited a long time. Perhaps since the moment the boy first stepped into his world. Perhaps since the day Su Li left the Seireitei.
But someone else had waited longer.
Su Li met his gaze, wordless.
He had waited forty-one years.
From the moment his eyes opened to this world, he had known—this day would come.
Even before the system awakened, he had questioned whether this was his destiny. When the system finally appeared, it confirmed it.
This was fate.
The battle that would end all waiting.
Forty years of solitude, of training and endurance—all for this.
Old grudges. New hatred. Past and future.
Everything would end here.
Boom!
Aizen's Reiatsu surged skyward, boundless and terrifying.
Boom!
Su Li's spiritual pressure erupted in turn, bursting outward like a storm.
Their combined momentum twisted the heavens, splitting clouds apart as day turned to night and night to day again.
"That is—!"
"Ultra Instinct!"
Gasps erupted across the battlefield as Su Li's hair shimmered faintly with silver light. The captains' hearts trembled; the image of that legendary form still burned vividly in memory.
"A...Li..."
Sui-Feng's tears fell again. That sight—the same as forty years ago—hit deeper than any wound.
Though she had seen him in passing over the decades, nothing compared to this.
This was him, the true Su Li.
"Ultra Instinct..." Tōshirō murmured, stunned. Around him, lieutenants and seated officers stared wide-eyed, many seeing it for the first time.
"So this is the Ultra Instinct... I've always wanted to see it myself," Aizen said calmly, though a faint excitement flickered behind his measured tone.
"Ali, be careful," Yamamoto's deep voice called, heavy with warning. "That man... is far stronger than before."
Su Li didn't answer. His gaze stayed fixed on Aizen, unwavering.
"You want to reach the heavens?" he said softly.
"I'll take you there."
He bent slightly, knees flexing, the air around him beginning to distort. Heat rippled, space trembled.
Heaven and earth fell silent.
Then—
Boom!!
Su Li's fist slammed into Aizen's abdomen, the shockwave collapsing the ground beneath their feet.
Boom!!!
In the same instant, their figures vanished in a flash of blinding light, streaking upward—piercing the sky itself.
Clouds shattered.
The heavens roared open.
A boy's fist, carrying all the hopes of the world, drove the god upward—straight into the sky.
The light streaked across the heavens like a comet, brighter than the sun itself.
And below, those who witnessed it could only look up, their hearts trembling with awe.
The boy had risen with the wind, soaring beyond all limits—
Skyrocketing to ninety thousand miles!
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