"It's over?"
"Aizen-taichō… looks like there's no suspense left anymore."
At that moment,
as the battle footage ended and the transparent screen dimmed into darkness,
Ichimaru Gin blinked in surprise.
Then he turned to Aizen, expression mixed and uncertain.
Originally,
he had believed it might only be temporary—
that perhaps being frozen didn't mean defeat.
After all, judging from the spiritual pressure gap revealed at the start,
the power of Hyōrinmaru alone shouldn't have been enough
to completely freeze and kill Harribel.
Gin was convinced of that. He always had been.
But when the screen went black
and no reversal appeared—
everything happened exactly as Hitsugaya had said.
In that war,
Harribel would remain forever trapped inside the ice statue,
her life slowly fading away
as she watched her subordinates die before her eyes.
For one of the top three Espada—
what a tragic fate.
"..."
Silence.
Aizen, unusually, didn't respond right away.
His eyes flickered rapidly as he stared at the dark screen,
a faint trace of disappointment showing deep in his gaze.
Clearly,
he was displeased by the consecutive defeats of the Espada
and by their eventual failure in that future war.
After a pause,
Aizen finally spoke:
"Gin…"
"If even in a one-on-one battle they can't defeat Hitsugaya…"
"Then we need to reassess the entire Arrancar army—its overall strength and its true purpose."
His tone was cold.
Completely devoid of emotion.
It was clear that when Aizen spoke of his subordinates,
he didn't see them as companions.
To him, they were simply pieces on a board—
tools to be discarded at any time.
Especially now, after repeated defeats,
they no longer even deserved his recognition.
"Yeah…" Gin nodded lightly. "To be honest, both the Arrancar and the Espada have too low a ceiling. Their potential is limited."
"It seems in the future, they don't even have a place anymore."
He shook his head slightly, tone full of disdain.
Judging by the clips and information revealed so far,
it was clear that in the future timeline,
the Hollows and Arrancar had fallen behind—
unable to keep up with the power growth of the others.
Counting on them to invade the Soul Society,
let alone the Royal Palace,
was nothing but delusion.
Pure suicide.
Then—
as Aizen and Gin spoke—
"Shhh!"
The dark screen suddenly lit up again.
The footage resumed.
A new scene appeared.
"I see now…"
"So you're the Captain of the Twelfth Division, huh? The mad scientist himself."
"You seem confident—thinking your four modified corpses can handle my zombie army."
With a mocking smile, she spread her hands.
It was Giselle Gewelle,
a member of the Sternritter,
her Schrift 'Z' symbolizing the ability Zombie.
She stood proudly on a battlefield,
eyes filled with arrogance as she taunted the figure opposite her.
Through the video feed, viewers could see clearly:
around Giselle lay countless corpses—bloodstained, rigid, twisted—
faces locked in grotesque grimaces.
Each of them—
once a soldier of the Gotei 13—
now part of a massive zombie army,
reanimated and controlled by Giselle's power.
The audience erupted immediately.
Because of that single word—"zombie."
The eerie, nightmarish sight of it all was enough to cause uproar.
"?!"
"Zombies? What the hell is that supposed to be?!"
"I've been in the Soul Society for years, cut down more people than I can count, and I've never heard of such a thing!"
In the Eleventh Division,
Zaraki Kenpachi frowned deeply.
Every soul, once killed, was either purified by a Zanpakutō or sent to Rukongai.
As for "zombies"?
The man who once ruled the killing fields of Zaraki District
had never heard of such a concept.
He refused to believe that the dead could fight again.
To him, zombies were utter nonsense.
"Yeah…"
Beside him,
Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa both nodded.
"But according to what she said, she's facing Captain Kurotsuchi right now."
"So, without a doubt, this is a battle between two maniacs. But what's any of this got to do with Hitsugaya?"
Ikkaku rubbed his bald head, puzzled.
In the last scene,
Hitsugaya had just shone brightly—
defeating a Vasto Lorde Arrancar,
leaving the Soul Society in awe.
Surely his next opponent wouldn't be a bunch of reanimated weaklings?
That would make no sense.
But then—
the little girl, Yachiru Kusajishi, puffed her cheeks and cut in playfully:
"Heehee~ What if…"
"Since it's a zombie fight… maybe Shiro-chan's one of them too?"
Her innocent joke made everyone freeze.
"What?"
"Hitsugaya… a zombie?"
"No way!!!"
Even the thick-headed Kenpachi instinctively shook his head.
Ridiculous. Impossible.
Yet—
the next scene hit like a thunderclap.
The footage switched—
a chaotic battle underway.
To everyone's shock,
Kurotsuchi Mayuri's "zombies" were revealed to be four modified Arrancar.
And among them—
one was Luppi,
the very Espada who had been the first to fall to Hitsugaya.
This revelation
instantly sent waves of outrage through Hueco Mundo.
"What the hell?!"
"Our Arrancar have become zombies—controlled by a Shinigami captain?!"
"And wait—Luppi's there? Didn't she already die in that battle in the Human World, frozen by Hyōrinmaru?!"
"If she's a zombie… then what about Lady Harribel?"
Fear spread like wildfire.
The Hollows and Arrancar were furious,
yet at the same time terrified.
They never imagined the Shinigami could be so twisted—
using their corpses as specimens,
turning them into puppets.
If that was what happened to Luppi—
then Harribel's fate was better left unspoken.
But before anyone could process the horror,
a new voice rang out—Giselle's gleeful tone.
"Ara~"
"Captain-san, looks like little Bambietta couldn't beat your zombie Arrancar."
"No helping it… guess I'll have to send him in next!"
As the camera shifted,
it focused on an open space behind her.
And then—without warning—
a figure appeared,
clutching the Zanpakutō Hyōrinmaru,
skin darkened, eyes lifeless, body hanging limply—
Hitsugaya Tōshirō,
in zombie form,
stood in the center of the screen.
That instant,
chaos erupted again.
Especially for Hitsugaya himself,
who watched wide-eyed, completely frozen in disbelief.
"What the—?!"
"That's… me?!"
"I… turned into a zombie?!"
Hitsugaya was utterly dumbfounded.
(End of Chapter)
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