However…
watching with eyes wide open,
the Head-Captain's whole body looked weakened.
As someone who had been by his side
for the last two thousand years, thinking for him first,
his personal attendant and aide, Sasakibe Chōjirō, rushed to speak words of comfort:
"Head-Captain, please quell your anger.
To have you worry for your subordinates' lives is, to me, an honor.
But… everything just now was only footage of the future—
events that occurred in the original timeline!"
That one line from Sasakibe
instantly woke everyone up.
"You're right…"
"Vice-Captain Sasakibe is correct!"
Kyōraku Shunsui nodded and agreed. "Before, due to information gaps, the pure-blood Quincy hid in the dark, and we were the ones passively withdrawing.
With the countdown videos, the situation has flipped.
Time now stands fully on our Shinigami side!"
He finished,
turned his head,
and stopped looking at the transparent light-screen.
Facing the opposite line of captains, his gaze fell on Kurotsuchi Mayuri, and he grinned broadly:
"With Captain Kurotsuchi here—so long as, over the coming stretch, he leads the Technology Development Bureau to keep tracing—
I believe… in the end, we can definitely find the pure-blood Quincy's nest!"
No one doubted Mayuri's research prowess.
It was undeniable:
the captain-scientist's behavior could be strange and hard to read at times,
but at least in loyalty,
Mayuri had always served the Head-Captain—
steadfastly loyal to the Thirteen Court Guard Squads for years.
So pinning hopes on Mayuri
was the most reliable bet.
"Ahh…"
Suddenly called out by name,
Mayuri gave a cold laugh beneath the white-blue mask, flashing white teeth.
"I don't much care for being praised unprompted,
but for once that rascal Kyōraku isn't wrong.
With these countdown videos, the temporal advantage is ours.
And as for the words 'Wandenreich'—the Invisible Empire—!"
Speaking,
Mayuri's eyes shifted.
He glanced, as if by accident, toward the outside.
Sunlight slanted down,
and on the ground, the black shadows were cast in jagged shapes.
Mayuri then voiced a conjecture that stunned the hall:
"I've always believed…
this world doesn't give names by mistake.
'Hyōrinmaru' is the strongest ice-type Zanpakutō.
'Nozarashi' belongs to that barbarian Zaraki, and so on…"
Without preamble,
under the gazes of the Head-Captain and the other captains,
Mayuri let a deliberate, gloomy smile creep across his face—
and jabbed at the one he'd never liked: Zaraki Kenpachi.
"You punk…"
Zaraki sneered,
lip curling, too lazy to argue.
Mayuri continued: "So, in my view, a name like 'Invisible Empire'…
what if it literally hides in the least noticeable place?
Somewhere none of us would ever think to look?"
He ended with a meaningful smile.
Following the hint in his eyes, the captains all glanced out the window—
finally resting their eyes on the ground,
on those irregular, black shadows.
"Shadows?"
"No… that can't be!"
Soi Fon frowned.
Arms folded, she blurted out by reflex.
Shadows were everywhere—
Soul Society, the human world, Hueco Mundo—everywhere.
And within the Seireitei?
In the shadows of the buildings?
For a moment Soi Fon felt Mayuri was going too far—either drunk or brain-damaged.
If shadows
could really hide people,
and hide an entire pure-blood Quincy race,
then they all might as well drop everything
and devote themselves to hide-and-seek.
Besides…
even someone like Aizen
hadn't thought along those lines.
Why was Mayuri so sure that the shadows Aizen ignored
were the key clue to finding the pure-blood Quincy?
It sounded absurd.
But—
before Mayuri could answer,
the transparent light-screen flashed with new footage,
cutting everyone off
and pulling the captains' eyes back to the screen.
Scene change.
No longer the First Division.
Outside the barracks—because war had broken out—
the background throbbed with the sounds of killing and shouting.
It was the future Seireitei.
"So it's come to this."
"That declaration was the start of war."
"The second blood war with the pure-blood Quincy has begun!"
As the camera panned
over a ravaged Seireitei,
the Shinigami of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads grew heavy of heart.
Some who had fought in the previous war
couldn't help a stab of pain and even fear for what was coming.
Then,
the camera stopped moving—
and fixed on a black figure standing high above.
In an instant,
the uproar exploded.
In the Seireitei, in the Onmitsukidō, across the Shinigami world—
viewers everywhere jolted to their feet,
as if beholding a taboo that existed only in legend.
Black hair.
Deep-cut features and a handsome face.
Blood-red eyes
that looked evil—and seemed to see past and future,
to know all things.
"This is…"
"Legendary King of the Pure-Blood Quincy—Yhwach?!"
Unohana Retsu's eyes flashed fiercely.
As an original captain and the second commander of the Combat Division,
she had been a participant when that ancient war erupted.
Using her Zanpakutō, she had disguised herself as a butcheress
and cut down many pure-blood Quincy—
and at the end, within the ring that encircled Yhwach,
she had faced the Quincy King himself.
So even after a thousand years,
she recognized this shameful man at a glance.
"What?"
"That's Yhwach?"
"The legendary progenitor of the Quincy?"
Kyōraku Shunsui's pupils shook.
He didn't doubt Unohana's words.
Since becoming a captain,
he had more than once gone to the Great Spirit Library Corridor,
specially reading those fragmentary records of the Thousand-Year Blood War.
He knew no little about Yhwach.
Still, what shocked him was the very next shot—
the legendary Quincy King
had appeared just like that, out of nowhere.
It was beyond expectation.
Of course the captains weren't the only ones shocked.
At this moment,
the entire Shinigami world
was thrown into ripples by Yhwach's sudden reveal.
Hueco Mundo
was no exception.
"Oooh…"
"Captain Aizen… this guy… if I'm not wrong,
he's the man you mentioned—the Quincy King, Yhwach!"
Beneath the throne,
Ichimaru Gin snapped out of his torpor.
His eyelids lifted, pale-blue eyes catching the light.
Yhwach's entrance
gave him a long-lost thrill.
Judging from the background, the first assault on the Seireitei in the future
was personally attended by the Quincy King.
That was a crucial thread never shown before.
"Gin…
you're right."
On the throne above,
Aizen Sōsuke shifted his posture—
sitting upright instead of lounging—interest bright in his voice.
"I've been waiting for his appearance in the future,
just not for it to be quite so abrupt."
Truth be told,
once members of Squad Zero began appearing in earlier countdowns,
Aizen had been watching—
waiting for the window when this wicked man Yhwach would step onstage.
And now,
the moment had finally arrived.
More importantly,
this round's focus was the Head-Captain
and the Zanpakutō Ryūjin Jakka.
Which meant—
this reveal was all but spelling it out:
next, a battle was inevitable
between the two leaders.
Head-Captain of the Shinigami
versus the Quincy King.
At that,
amusement deepened on Aizen's face; the corner of his mouth arced faintly.
As ruler of Hueco Mundo,
after the defection storm and two rounds of "rotation" rankings,
he had long remained the audience's central focus.
Now,
with Yhwach onstage,
the spotlight could finally be shared.
Aizen himself
could sit this one out—
watch, in peace and quiet as a viewer, the coming clash of the century.
And in Aizen's gaze,
the countdown continued, the future kept unfolding—
"Zaraki Kenpachi…
captain of the Eleventh Division, the battle division."
A blood-red cloak billowed,
hunting in the smoke-choked dark of war.
Yhwach raised a hand—
and with just one arm, clamped it around Zaraki's throat,
lifting him—spent and dying after defeat—
high into the air.
Beneath his black hair, his scar-lined face remained cold.
"To have twice, on your own,
slain three members of the Sternritter in succession—
your ferocity befits your mark as one of the Five Special War Potentials."
He finished,
and facing the camera,
Yhwach, expressionless, raised his hand—
[clip ends here]
(End of Chapter)
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