"Come with me," said Aaroniero as he stood up. "I have a plan to assassinate Aizen!"
He turned and began to walk away, with Rukia appearing to follow him normally.
But just as quickly, Aaroniero's expression twisted into a sinister grin as he suddenly thrust his zanpakutō toward her!
However, this was no longer the same Rukia as before. She easily dodged his attack with a quick shunpō.
Senna immediately drew her zanpakutō and sneered coldly, "Finally showing your true colors?"
Aaroniero turned with his blade still in hand and laughed coldly, "Is it strange that I want to kill you? Have you forgotten who killed me with her own hands before, Rukia?"
At those words, Rukia recalled that rainy night when she killed Kaien-dono.
"If you want to atone for your sins," Aaroniero said with venom, "then kill all your comrades who came with you to Hueco Mundo. Do that, and I'll forgive you. Start with this little girl next to you!"
Rukia's eyes sharpened—now she was completely certain.
No matter how much this man resembled Kaien, no matter how familiar he felt—he was definitely not Kaien-dono.
The real Kaien-dono would never joke about the lives of his comrades!
"You are not the Kaien-dono I knew. The real Kaien-dono would never compare the worth of his comrades' lives to his own!" Rukia roared, her spiritual pressure erupting.
She unsheathed her zanpakutō. "Dance, Sode no Shirayuki!"
Holding the pure white blade, she turned to Senna, voice firm. "Senna, he's mine. I'll destroy this thing wearing Kaien-dono's face!"
Senna, seeing Rukia's resolve, sighed and withdrew her blade. As a being born from memories, no one understood the pain of having their past manipulated more than she did.
"First Dance: White Moon!"
A massive white pillar of ice shot up from beneath Aaroniero's feet. But he didn't seem surprised—he easily dodged it.
"Second Dance: White Ripple!"
Even the glacier surge was evaded, as if he knew exactly how that attack would play out.
Rukia's heart sank.
No doubt about it—this man fought exactly like Kaien-dono.
In fact, the very techniques she was using now had been refined with Kaien-dono's help.
He had those memories. That's how he evaded so easily.
Aaroniero kept pressing the psychological attack. "Rukia, you can deny it, but you know the truth. These techniques were learned under my guidance, weren't they?"
Cheap!
After dodging her attacks, he casually adjusted his stance.
Then came the familiar movement—Rukia's pupils shrank.
This was the exact stance Kaien used when releasing his zanpakutō.
And it wasn't resurrección.
"Surge, Nejibana!"
With a whirl of his blade, Aaroniero summoned a long trident that looked just like Poseidon's weapon. Waves surged around him.
The familiarity of it left Rukia stunned.
He charged at her with the trident, and she blocked it—barely. But that trident wasn't just long—it unleashed surging waves with each swing.
It was clearly a water-type zanpakutō with incredible destructive power.
In theory, Rukia's ice should counter it, but to Senna's eyes, she wasn't gaining any advantage at all.
The constant water pressure made dodging difficult, and the trident's range kept Rukia pinned back.
"Hadō #33: Sōkatsui!" Rukia shouted, shifting to kido to gain space.
But a point-blank kido was useless. Aaroniero leaned slightly and evaded it easily.
Still, the blast tore through the wall of the palace, letting in a ray of sunlight.
At first, Aaroniero didn't react.
"What's wrong, Rukia? Tired of swordplay and switching to kido now?" he mocked as he stepped forward.
But the moment he entered the sunlight—his face twisted in pain and he instantly vanished with shunpō into the shadows.
Rukia turned thoughtfully toward the darkened area where he now stood.
"Bakudō #4: Hainawa!"
A quick, chant-less spell wrapped around his arm.
It only held him for a moment—but that was enough!
Rukia began a high-level kido technique—dual incantation.
Simultaneously chanting two different spells at once, she invoked—
"Bakudō #61: Rikujōkōrō!"
Six rods of yellow light pinned Aaroniero in place.
Then Rukia raised her hands toward him and spoke coldly:
"Hadō #73: Sōren Sōkatsui!"
Two massive white-blue fireballs exploded through the wall behind Aaroniero, letting sunlight flood in!
"AAAAAGGHHH!!"
His scream echoed through the palace.
As the light struck him, Kaien's face began to melt, revealing a massive glass tube with two deformed skulls inside.
That was Aaroniero's true form—the 9th Espada.
One skull had the number 9 and spoke with the voice of a middle-aged man, while the other sounded like a child.
It was the same voices she and Senna had heard earlier.
"Quick! Back into the darkness!" the man's voice shouted.
"I know that already!" the child replied.
With a burst of spiritual pressure, Aaroniero shattered the Rikujōkōrō and retreated back into the shadows, returning to Kaien's form.
But it was already too late—Rukia no longer doubted it.
This was not Kaien-dono.
Her fury deepened watching this hollow dare to wear Kaien's face.
Aaroniero ignored her rage, lifting his trident. "Well done, Kuchiki Rukia. You saw through me. I'm the only Gillian among the Espada… but I still made it to the top ten."
"What makes me special is that I'm the only Arrancar who can evolve infinitely!"
"No, I'm not Kaien-dono. And no, I'm not even the hollow who killed him—I ate the hollow who killed him."
He removed one glove—revealing not a human hand, but a mass of writhing black tentacles.
"My power is called Glotonería. As the name implies—I devour other Hollows and take their powers and memories for myself."
At last, Rukia understood—Aaroniero had devoured the Hollow who had possessed Kaien-dono.
The very idea of this creature desecrating Kaien's image filled her with righteous fury.
But Aaroniero knew a trident alone wouldn't win this.
So he shouted, "Devour them all, Glotonería!"
A grotesque transformation erupted from his lower half, tentacles spreading like a monstrous octopus.
He laughed wildly. "How about this? This power comes from devouring 33,650 Hollows!"
"In this form, I can use all of their powers at once!"
But Rukia wasn't fazed.
The creature before her looked overwhelming—but its power was wildly dispersed, not focused.
Aaroniero lunged again with his trident—but Rukia simply blew a breath in his direction.
He hesitated, confused—until that breath released a flurry of icy mist that froze his trident instantly!
"What?!"
Rukia stood firm, Sode no Shirayuki in hand, gazing at the face she once knew so well.
"Yes, you look like Kaien-dono. But your heart is nothing like his!"
"Kaien-dono would never act like a maniac!"
With a roar, she extended her blade like a divine lance and slashed it toward Aaroniero.
But he dodged—then countered with a massive blast of water from his trident.
All those powers he claimed to have… and yet Rukia had seen none of them.
She wasn't about to give him a chance either.
"Second Dance: White Ripple!"
A surge of icy energy far stronger than before crashed toward him.
Bloated in his grotesque form, Aaroniero didn't expect Rukia to still have that move ready!
Desperate, he raised his trident and launched another wave—but this time, her glacier froze his water attack completely and spread up, freezing his lower body solid!
"Impossible!!"
He struggled to break free—but it was too late.
Rukia appeared before him in an instant, blade at his face.
"Foul spirit that defiled Kaien-dono—go to hell and atone!"
She stabbed him clean through.
"Third Dance: White Sword!"
The perfect ice blade pierced Aaroniero's true form—shattering the glass tube and the skulls inside it.
His body disintegrated instantly, and the two skulls, now exposed to the air, crumbled to dust.
"Rukia!" Senna flash-stepped to her side.
Rukia slowly sheathed her zanpakutō, her expression filled with quiet sorrow.
"…It's over."
Seeing her like this, Senna's heart ached. She gently pulled Rukia into her arms.
(End of Chapter)
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