"Gone…"
"Even the reiraku (spirit ribbons) are missing…"
Mashiro and Hachigen stood in the street, a chill running through them as if they'd been dropped into an ice cellar.
"Hiyori…"
"Lisa …"
Thinking of their abducted comrades, both clenched their fists in pain. With Aizen's methods, they couldn't imagine what Hiyori and Lisa might face. The nightmare of their forced hollowfication still echoed in their minds.
Mashiro kicked a tree, teeth gritted. "If only Shinji and the others weren't in Soul Society! With just those two Arrancar, there's no way they could've taken Hiyori and Lisa."
Strong as Yammy and Ulquiorra were, she believed Shinji was stronger. If the four of them had fought together, those two would have been cut down.
Hachigen kept his calm—and then jerked as he remembered. "Cole—Cole is back. And Captain Unohana and Kurosaki Ichigo are here too. They can save Hiyori and Lisa."
In a Shinigami's thousand-year life, months pass in a blink, so he hadn't thought of Cole and Ichigo at first. Only now did it hit him: those two "human Shinigami" were already captain-class. In Seireitei, they could hold captain's seats.
Mashiro realized the same and glanced at the warehouse barrier. "The barrier muffled our reiatsu."
No time for regret—both of them flared their reiatsu at once.
At the Kurosaki Clinic—
Ichigo, mid-spar with his dad, blinked—and in that instant Isshin's flying kick plastered him into the wall.
Isshin laughed. "Ichigo, you let your guard down!"
"Stupid old man…" Ichigo, a footprint on his face, twitched at the lip. "One day I'm going to kill you…"
Isshin guffawed. "You've got a long way to go, Ichigo. Maybe in a few hundred years you'll beat your old man—"
Thud.
Ichigo punted his dad across the room, dusted his hands, and muttered, "No need to wait. I can kick you now. Yuzu, Karin—no dinner for me tonight. Rest early."
He hurried to his room. Those two sudden bursts of reiatsu—that was why he'd taken the kick. But why were two Vizards suddenly flaring captain-level pressure? Seireitei would sense that.
In the living room, Yuzu and Karin ate while Karin side-eyed Isshin. "You messed around again, old man. Ichigo skipped dinner; you made him lose his appetite."
"Huh? That was my fault!?" Isshin flailed, then glanced—just once—toward Mashiro and Hachigen's direction. A sliver of worry surfaced. Why were they suddenly flaring reiatsu? An unexpected enemy?
He sat and shoveled food, the thought fading as quickly as it came. Whatever. His son was strong now. And even if the elder son wasn't enough, he had a godson too. Two sons together? Invincible. What problem couldn't they solve?
"H-hey!" Karin snarled as Isshin stole the last tempura from her bowl. "Die, old man!!!"
…
"Mashiro!"
"Pudgy Vizard-ojisan!?"
In a luxurious villa's underground chamber, bare-chested, leaning against Minazuki, Cole looked up in surprise. "What are those two doing?"
He didn't stand. One hand stroked the silky hair on his thighs—Unohana's—while his right hand traced the air, chanting:
"Black and white net! Twenty-two bridges, forty-eight hollows!
Footfall, far thunder, sharp peaks, returning earth, night ambush, sea of clouds, azure sequence—fill the full circle, rush for the heavens!
Bakudō 77: Tenteikūra (Heavenly Rickshaws in Silken Air)!"
The sky seemed to crack—countless white threads like fractures across a mirror spread out, snaking over sky, earth, and the four directions, brushing one faint light-point after another.
The reiryoku circuit reached the Vizards' base, and Cole's voice carried along the lattice like a whisper from the air itself.
"Shiro, Hachi—what are you two doing?"
Their eyes lit with relief.
"It's Tenteikūra," Hachigen said, delighted. "Cole's reiatsu caught us—he's sending a transmission."
Mashiro blurted, "Cole, get over here! Two Arrancar just took Hiyori and Lisa—and a human girl in pajamas!"
"Arrancar?"
"Hiyori and Lisa?"
"A human girl?"
Cole's brows knit; a bad feeling pricked him. He pushed his reiatsu up the lattice. "Don't tell me… Orihime…"
He swept the circuit through the city—
and saw Orihime in her room, blushing as she changed clothes.
She felt his reiatsu and clutched her chest, cheeks hot. "Cole-kun, I'm changing…"
Cole politely retracted his reiatsu, eyes turning skyward. "So they didn't take Orihime. Instead they targeted the Vizards… Aizen—what are you playing at?"
He couldn't see the whole plan—but he knew Aizen: no longer hiding, arrogant to the bone, everything under control. The Vizards were never worth his attention. Why abduct them on purpose?
He thought of the "human girl," and that prickle of dread sharpened. "No way…"
He glanced down. Unohana lay across his legs, face flushed, a thin string of drool at her lip, eyes unfocused.
"Hana-nee, looks like I have to step out."
She didn't respond—her mind was blissfully blank. Minazuki butted Cole's shoulder, as if to say: your fault she's like this.
Cole smiled. Black-red reiatsu flared; he took a single step—
—and vanished from the underground hall.
Two seconds later, oppressive black-red pressure rolled at the ruined warehouse door. Mashiro and Hachigen swallowed, skin crawling at the malice laced through it—even knowing it was Cole's. After Yammy and Ulquiorra, any brutal reiatsu made their scalps prickle.
"Where did those two Arrancar go?"
The calm voice carried on the dark wind.
Bare torso, a hole in his chest, black garb with a black-flamed hem, Ruyi Jingu Bang propped on his shoulder—Cole stepped out.
Seeing his hollowfied form, both Vizards sucked a breath. This black-haired boy felt more Hollow than the two from before.
Mashiro recovered and shook her head bitterly. "Didn't see. Their cero stopped us, and they were too fast…"
For the first time, she'd met Hollows stronger than most Seireitei captains.
"You have a way, right?" Mashiro asked, hopeful.
"I'll try."
Cole spread his fingers and pressed the air—Tenteikūra's circuits veined outward again, a great net settling over Karakura.
Three seconds later, Ichigo arrived, eyes widening at Cole before swinging to Mashiro and Hachigen. "What happened!?"
Hearing the quick rundown, Ichigo grabbed Zangetsu and spun to bolt. Arrancar raising hell in Karakura? He'd cut them down.
Hachigen, deadpan, caught his sleeve. "Cole is using Tenteikūra. You're going to 'search' with your legs?"
Ichigo scratched his head, sheepish. Right. He hadn't thought—just kill the Arrancar.
Cole glanced his way. "Ichigo, this enemy isn't simple. Go all-out—open with bankai and hollowfication."
"Bankai and hollowfication, huh…" Ichigo's face hardened. From Cole's tone alone, he knew how dangerous the pair was.
"Bankai!!!"
Black, tight-fitting robes, red-lined within; a slim black blade in his hand.
"Tensa Zangetsu!"
Not enough. Ichigo touched his cheek and tore—black-red reiatsu exploded, ripping his clothes. His skin blanched, a hole opened in his chest with black tracery spreading; his black-red mask slicked white and black and grew two horns.
Almost a Hollow.
"Cole. Found them?"
"They're hiding—reiatsu suppressed. But not for long."
Tenteikūra would keep narrowing the gaps.
"Then we wait—and kill them when they slip," Ichigo said, voice gone cold under the mask.
Cole side-eyed him. "Still not used to that state?"
"This way I'm nearly a Hollow," Ichigo answered in the same cold tone. "Only my reason's intact. The rest… not much I can do."
"That's fine." Cole nodded. Ichigo's situation wasn't his—Cole had Hollow power without a true Hollow within. Ichigo did—Shirosaki.
Listening, feeling their pressure, Mashiro and Hachigen trembled. They'd been right. These two human boys, hollowfied, had stepped beyond captains—straight into the realm of monsters.
…
On a crowded avenue—
Ulquiorra carried Tatsuki Arisawa; Yammy hauled Hiyori and Lisa. Their forms flickered forward in leaps, reiatsu pressed to the floor. But even so, Tenteikūra's circuits gnawed at their lead, inch by inch.
Yammy stopped, temper snapping. He glared at the white veins knitting toward them. "Ulquiorra, I'm done running. I want to see what those two think they've got."
Ulquiorra halted, voice flat. "Very well. I'll tear open the web."
The net was too fast; even with sonido, they wouldn't outrun it. Better to confront—and then leave.
The instant they paused, Tenteikūra's circuits overran them.
"Found you." Cole's gaze slid southwest.
He tapped the ground—vanished—and reappeared a hundred meters away.
Sonido.
Ichigo stepped after him without hesitation—his footwork also a sonido-style blur.
Mashiro and Hachigen winced. Were these two Shinigami—or Hollows? Still, they forced their feet to move and followed, as fast as their strength allowed. If they didn't get Hiyori and Lisa back now, what then? Would those two be turned into Hollows again?
"Ha-ha-ha-ha…"
"Finally—I can feast!"
Yammy's eyes burned with greed. He ignored the two raging reiatsu signatures tearing toward them and stared at the main thoroughfare packed with people. His throat bobbed.
It was a bustling artery—nearly two thousand pedestrians. He couldn't even guess how satisfied he'd be after a single breath.
He threw his head back—jaws yawning wide—and inhaled with all his might.
Wind howled.
Screams rose—then cut off. Bodies collapsed like wheat before a scythe. Only the spiritually aware could see it: from each body, a soul was dragged loose, inch by inch, toward Yammy's gaping maw.
"Yammy." Ulquiorra didn't turn. "Five seconds. Then we go."
"To be continued."
(End of Chapter)
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