The snow was burning.
Flames hissed over the frozen remains of the 4th Division, but the fire did not melt the frost, instead merging with it. Ash and snow swirled and fell like grey rain on the barracks.
At the center of the storm was Genryūsai Yamamoto, his shihakushō half consumed by the heat. Behind him, squads of Soul Reapers waited at the threshold, reluctant to cross. The air itself wavered, too heavy to breathe.
Yamamoto, growled:
"No more, those that remain will burn."
He walked alone towards the white hell.
The Infirmary
What had once been the infirmary was now a cathedral of frost. Pillars of ice reached the ceiling like the bones of a god. In the center, Rukia Kuchiki hung suspended in a crystal cocoon, the light pulsing within her, to the rhythm of a sleeping heart.
Unohana knelt nearby, sword drawn but motionless. The ends of her hair had frozen. Her eyes were calm, resigned.
Yamamoto growls:
"You couldn't hold her back."
Unohana whispers:
"I held back her humanity. The rest... refused."
Yamamoto, growled:
"Then I'll finish it."
He raised Ryūjin Jakka.
The fire flourished - ancient, absolute. The frost howled in response. When the two forces met, the world cracked.
The temperature stopped making sense. The flames and ice devoured the reishi itself, creating a void of light and shadow. Unohana shielded herself, skin blistering and freezing at the same time.
Through the light, Rukia's eyes opened - twin violet suns.
Rukia's voice echos through the ice like a thousand whispering soul:
"You would destroy me, old man... but it was your spark that gave rise to this cold."
The frost under Yamamoto's feet turned bluish white and climbed up his robe like vines. He swung his sword and pierced it, but for every flame he hit, the frost multiplied.
In the depths of Hueco Mundo
A single ray of pale light pierced the void and headed towards Las Noches. The remains of Harribel's remnants turned their eyes towards the sky - a second moon was forming, dark and cold.
One Arrancar mumured:
"It bleeds reishi, it is eating the sky."
When the frost touched the Hollow realm, it changed. The Hollow masks began to crack, releasing blue fire instead of darkness. The corrupted screamed, then laughed, their reiatsu fusing the energy of Hollow and Soul Reaper, born of the Black Moon.
Back in the Seireitei
The explosion occurred without sound.
A sphere of white fire emerged from the 4th Division and expanded outwards in slow, elegant silence. Then came the shockwave - a blast of frozen flame that turned the ground to glass and the air to ash.
Mayuri watched from a distance, the pylons glowing red.
Mayuri whispered:
"Ahh... interdimensional contamination, how... magnificent."
When the light cleared, half the barracks was gone. The crater glistened with molten frost - heat and cold devoured each other incessantly.
In the center was Yamamoto, motionless, with his sword embedded in the ground. His beard was covered in ice. His eyes were still burning.
Rukia was gone.
Unohana crawled out of the rumble, her skin blackened and her spiritual power barely stable. Isane found her, half-frozen, clutching a trembling vial of blood.
Isane, clutching her arm:
"It's spreading beyond the walls. The 9th Division reports that there is frost in the air."
Unohana whispers:
"No... that's not frost."
Isane, taken aback:
"Then what?"
Unohana whispers once more:
"Moonlight."
The World of the Living, Karakura Town
The sky split.
Not visibly, not to the living, but every spiritually conscious being felt it. The air trembled; the shadows leaned toward the east.
Ichigo Kurosaki stopped halfway, the handle of his shopping bag slipping from his finger. Above him, the moon flickered - once white, now streaked with violet. For an instant, he saw his reflection glow black.
His pulse quickened; the old bond in his soul awakened.
Ichigo, softly:
"Rukia..."
A single snowflake fell on his hand and did not melt.
He looked up again. The black moon had disappeared. Only silence remained.