"I'm… still alive…"
Byakuya opened his eyes in a daze.
The first thing he saw was a handsome black-haired boy leaning over him, smiling.
"Afternoon, dear brother-in-law. You really had me worried there."
Byakuya fell silent for a moment, then slowly closed his eyes again.
So he really had died.
If he was seeing Cole's face, didn't that mean this was Hell?
"Move, move, move…"
Rukia swung her tiny fist and shoved Cole aside. Only then did she turn back to Byakuya, her face full of concern.
"Brother, are you feeling better!?"
Hearing his adorable little sister's voice, Byakuya opened his eyes again and said in confusion,
"Rukia?"
"What are you doing here?"
He distinctly remembered that during the previous captains' meeting, according to his instructions, Rukia was supposed to stay behind in Seireitei on guard duty.
So why had she suddenly appeared in Hueco Mundo?
Rukia was at a loss for words.
Cole leaned back into view with a grin. "I brought her here. Pretty great, right? Having your little sister by your side?"
Byakuya's face darkened.
"Busybody…"
When he'd accepted the Hueco Mundo assignment, his only condition had been that his sister not be allowed to come.
Hueco Mundo was far too dangerous.
His own strength was great enough that he might avoid serious danger—but that was not necessarily true for Rukia.
Only staying in Seireitei would be truly safe for her.
Cole understood exactly what Byakuya meant, so he said with an easy smile, "Relax. With me here, I won't let anything happen to Rukia."
Byakuya snorted, but didn't press the issue.
He still didn't want Rukia here…
But if Cole was the one watching over her, he could at least set his worries down for the moment.
Seeing this, Rukia quietly breathed a sigh of relief, then hurriedly asked,
"Brother, what happened just now? How did you get hurt so badly?"
In her heart, her brother was practically an invincible existence.
But right now, the injuries all over his body…
Looked like they had almost cost him his life.
At her question, Byakuya recalled the battle from moments earlier. He took a deep breath and turned his gaze to Cole.
"Before I answer that, I'd like to ask you something."
"How exactly did you manage to provoke Aizen to that extent?"
That was the question he found hardest to understand.
Aizen was a man of extraordinary composure—so how had he ended up in such a murderous rage?
So furious he looked ready to devour someone alive?
Cole coughed awkwardly, then gave him a rough explanation of what had happened.
Even someone as expressionless as Byakuya couldn't help the twitch at the corner of his mouth after hearing it all.
What a completely unprovoked disaster.
Cole had interrupted Aizen's evolution, and they had just so happened to drop in front of a furious Aizen at the worst possible moment.
Then they'd gone on to take the beating meant for Cole.
If Kenpachi hadn't suddenly gone berserk, the three of them would probably be dead by now.
Cole sighed. "Aizen really is terrifying. Especially the way he is now—there's just no anticipating him."
Byakuya shot him a look, face still dark.
You were the one who blocked everything.
We were the ones who got broken.
After hearing about what the three had gone through, Cole's gaze toward them was full of sympathy.
What pitiful souls.
The moment they accurately locked onto Las Noches, they ran straight into the final boss himself—Aizen.
Talk about stepping in the worst possible pile of bad luck.
But what surprised Cole most was the still-unconscious Kenpachi.
"You're saying he went berserk, his skin turned red like a demon, and he literally held Aizen back by force?"
He knew Kenpachi's strength very well.
Under normal circumstances, he should've been someone Aizen could one-shot with a single swing.
Suddenly, a thought flickered through Cole's mind. He shot a subtle glance at Yachiru and asked,
"Did Kenpachi… use Bankai (Final Release)?"
In the original timeline, Kenpachi awakened his own Bankai after that life-and-death duel with Unohana, gaining terrifying power.
So him using Bankai here wouldn't be strange.
The problem was—
Wasn't Yachiru actually Kenpachi's zanpakuto?
If Kenpachi had obtained his Bankai…
How could Yachiru still be here?
"Bankai?"
Byakuya frowned. "Don't talk nonsense. Kenpachi doesn't even have Shikai (Initial Release). How could he possibly have Bankai?"
"Then I guess it's not what I thought…"
Cole rubbed his chin, feeling like something was off.
Could Kenpachi also be running some kind of cheat?
Ichigo had the protagonist cheat.
Aizen had the mechanics cheat, the stat cheat, and the Hōgyoku cheat.
Yhwach basically just turned on God-mode.
So what cheat did Kenpachi have?
While Cole was lost in thought, the Kenpachi lying on the ground suddenly snapped his eyes open.
A savage golden reiatsu exploded outward from his body.
"Aizen!!!"
His roar split the skies.
In that instant, the rushing spiritual pressure blasted Byakuya, who was still next to him, straight into the air.
The violent pressure created a tornado on the white desert, a raging vortex that repelled everything around it.
"Brother!!"
Rukia's scalp tingled as she raced off to find the Byakuya who'd been blown away.
"Byakuya just… flew off…"
Cole silently retracted his gaze, then turned back to stare at Kenpachi.
"Seriously? You actually turned on cheats?"
Previously, Kenpachi's reiatsu level had been around the same as Yammy's—already nowhere near Ichigo's level.
But now…
Kenpachi's reiatsu felt like it was worth two Ichigos.
He was almost catching up to Cole himself.
What did he do, inject steroids or something?
How was his reiatsu spiking like this all of a sudden?
Kenpachi had just woken up, his mind still hazy. Seeing Cole in front of him, he sensed a threat and swung his sword at him on reflex.
"Ah!"
A golden flash flared.
Clang!
A piercing impact rang out.
Kenpachi's zanpakuto smashed down solidly against the Ruyi Jingu Bang.
The moment they collided, another powerful shockwave spread out in all directions. The white sand nearby surged up like ocean waves.
Mayuri had just poked his head out of the sand.
He opened his mouth—
And got a full load of sand crammed back in again.
"Calm down, Kenpachi!"
As Cole spoke, he grabbed Yachiru and lobbed her onto Kenpachi's head.
"Ding ding ding—Yachiru-brand plush doll."
Sensing Yachiru's reiatsu, Kenpachi finally began to calm down. His eyes were still blazing with fighting spirit as he laughed.
"Where is Aizen!!!"
That battle just now had let him experience the pinnacle of joy.
Excitement and fear had flooded his heart at the same time.
He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt fear.
To suddenly feel it again like that had nearly driven him insane with exhilaration.
Byakuya trudged back, coughing as he spat out a mouthful of white sand, his face dark as ink.
"That man left a long time ago. Do you really think he'd still be here letting you talk if he hadn't?"
Even with Kenpachi's rampage buying them some time, the truth was…
Even if the three of them worked together, they still weren't Aizen's match. Losing—or being killed—had only been a matter of time.
But at the critical moment…
Something on Aizen's side had clearly happened, forcing him to break away from the fight and leave.
"He left?"
Kenpachi sounded disappointed. He raised his zanpakuto toward the sky, frustration burning in his eyes.
"I really want to have another good fight with him…"
In that battle just now, he had been dancing on the knife's edge of death every single moment. One wrong move and he'd have been cut down on the spot.
But precisely because of that—
He had found true joy in the clash.
At that moment, a gentle figure approached across the distant sand—the captain's haori fluttering in the desert wind.
It was none other than Unohana.
Cole spotted her and waved in delight.
"Hana-nee, Hana-nee, you're here!"
Rukia, Byakuya, and the others were just as pleasantly surprised.
After all, this was Unohana—the current 4th Division Captain of Seireitei and the very embodiment of healing arts.
With her healing them, their recovery speed would definitely skyrocket.
They might be back in fighting shape in just a single day.
Unohana walked over, quietly surveying the scene. She smiled gently.
"From far away, I sensed an extremely familiar spiritual pressure. And as I thought, it turns out you all came to Hueco Mundo as well."
Cole blinked. "You mean the reiatsu I let out earlier?"
He didn't remember unleashing his spiritual pressure just now.
Unohana shook her head and pointed at the still-heavily injured Kenpachi, smiling.
"It was Captain Kenpachi. The reiatsu he released felt very familiar to me—I saw it once, long ago. So I came to see for myself."
Cole quickly pulled Unohana aside and quietly told her about Kenpachi's changes.
As she listened, Unohana's eyes gradually grew hotter. She couldn't help but look at Kenpachi, licking her red lips ever so slightly.
"From the looks of it… he's awakened."
"Awakened?"
Cole frowned in confusion.
"Yes."
Suppressing the wild excitement in her chest, Unohana explained, "Didn't I tell you? Hundreds of years ago, I met a boy with unimaginable strength."
"These wounds on my body… he's the one who gave them to me."
"But because he was too strong, he could no longer feel any joy in battle—and unconsciously sealed away his own strength."
By now, Cole had already guessed the truth. He stared at Kenpachi, shocked.
"You're saying… he's returned to that level?"
Unohana nodded, her eyes burning.
"That's right. But he's still far from complete. Back then, his reiatsu was even stronger than this."
"…Seriously?"
Cole felt an urge to curse.
Comparisons really would drive a man insane.
Even when Kenpachi was still just a little brat, he'd already possessed a brutal spiritual pressure that surpassed Unohana's.
Everything up until now…
Was just him undoing the limits he'd put on himself.
In other words—
Kenpachi as a kid back then…
Had been even stronger than he was now.
That was even more busted than Ichigo.
At least Ichigo had some kind of growth process.
Kenpachi, on the other hand, started off invincible, then sealed himself, and could only slowly reclaim his strength bit by bit through battle like he was spending points.
What kind of cheat was that supposed to be?
God-mode?
Unohana swung her blade, summoning the massive one-eyed manta ray.
The one-eyed manta nuzzled against Cole's shoulder affectionately, then opened its mouth and began showering everyone in healing drool.
Byakuya's face turned purple.
This was his most hated method of treatment.
Once it was over, your whole body felt sticky and slimy—completely devoid of any noble elegance.
After a round of healing…
Unohana's eyes burned as she looked at Kenpachi, then she raised her zanpakuto.
"Kenpachi. Let the two of us have a battle."
Kenpachi knew his injuries were still severe, but he just broke out in loud laughter, accepting her challenge with feverish excitement.
The next second—
They clashed.
No strange, special abilities.
Only the purest form of battle.
Every swing met another.
Every strike drew blood.
The two lunatics looked like they'd descended into the Asura Realm itself, their minds filled with nothing but fighting and slaughter.
Seeing that bloody spectacle, even Nel—despite being a Hollow—was terrified. She instinctively turned away, then peeked timidly at Cole.
"Cole… you're not going to stop them?"
"No need. Once they get tired, they'll stop. It's not like either of them is going to die."
Cole shook his head, utterly unconcerned.
No matter how badly they injured each other, as long as Unohana activated "Bankai, Minazuki (All Things End)," they'd be back to normal in no time.
And judging from the wild light in Unohana's eyes, even if he tried to stop her, he probably couldn't.
Just as Cole was about to slack off for a bit, his expression suddenly shifted. He reached out and brushed the air in front of him, feeling something wrong.
"That's strange… the resistance of space is way higher than before…"
As a Hollow capable of opening Garganta (Black Cavity), he should've been able to tear open a spatial passage in Hueco Mundo with ease.
Now, however, it had suddenly become extremely difficult.
There was only one explanation.
Someone had deliberately tampered with the space.
The first person that came to Cole's mind was Aizen.
With that man's skill, creating a gigantic barrier space that covered a huge area was child's play.
That was essentially the same as trapping them in Hueco Mundo—
No one could get in, and no one could get out.
Just like some horror story scenario.
In other words…
He had already gone to Karakura Town.
(End of Chapter)
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