BOOM!
Before Kurosaki Isshin could even get within five meters, Kurosaki Masaki merely extended a single finger and pressed it down lightly.
A terrifying pressure of spirit particles crashed down from above.
Thud!
Isshin didn't even have time to react. It was as if a mountain had slammed onto him. His knees hit the ground instantly, his face smashed hard against the cold stone floor. He couldn't even move a single finger.
"A monster? A Hollow?"
Masaki walked up to him and looked down at the man she had once loved. In her eyes, there was only ridicule and pity left.
"I really have become a well-behaved dog, but…"
"To fight against the Hollow King Palace, you're willing to cooperate with the murderer who personally killed your wife…"
"What kind of thing does that make you?"
"Shiba Isshin, do you know?"
Masaki slowly crouched down and whispered in his ear, her voice like a demon's curse, "A month ago, when you were beaten half to death on the outskirts of Hueco Mundo and lying there playing dead like a stray dog, I was on the sand dune nearby, watching you coldly."
"If you had even a shred of backbone back then, even if you had to crawl, if you had come charging toward the Hollow King Palace to see me, maybe I would've still had a bit of expectation for you. Maybe I would've even met you once."
"But you didn't."
"You lay there like a coward, either with your spine broken or simply not knowing what to do."
"You're just like me. No ability, and no courage to resist."
At that moment, looking at the man beneath her who was nearly crushed to death by her pressure, Masaki realized that her heart, already riddled with holes, truly could no longer stir even the slightest ripple.
There was no need anymore.
'This trash world full of lies, these hypocritical and cowardly trash beings, and this completely rotten version of myself—'
'Might as well destroy it all.'
"Y-you're not Masaki…"
Isshin beneath her feet was still struggling and cursing with difficulty, but those words could no longer reach Masaki's ears.
She had no interest in him anymore.
Crack!
Masaki expressionlessly lifted her foot. The black high heel came down hard onto the back of Isshin's head, then she pressed down with force.
Bang!
Isshin's head was stomped deep into the ground. His voice stopped abruptly.
Like crushing a noisy insect.
This dog of Rosse personally ended this twisted bond called the past.
———
[Elsewhere]
A cold wind howled. Ishida Ryuken stood alone on the smoke-filled battlefield.
He wore a black coat with gold trim, symbolizing his identity as one of the Hollow King Palace's Espada. The hem of his coat fluttered violently in the wind.
He didn't take any fighting stance. One hand stayed in his pocket, while the other casually adjusted the silver-rimmed glasses on his nose. Through the lenses, his indifferent eyes calmly looked at the young man before him.
Directly opposite him, Ishida Uryu had completely frozen.
The pride that had still been hanging on his face just moments ago now seemed frozen in place, stiffened into an almost ridiculous expression.
"You're going to stand in my way, Uryu?", Ryuken spoke lightly. His voice wasn't loud, but it cut clearly through the chaos of the battlefield.
The moment he spoke, on a watchtower at the flank, hundreds of Quincies who had snapped out of their shock all drew their spirit bows at once.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Hundreds of dense spirit arrows shot out like a swarm of locusts, screaming through the air with lethal intent, covering the sky as they rained toward the seemingly defenseless man.
Yet Ryuken didn't even turn his head.
He simply waved the hand he had just used to adjust his glasses, as if brushing away flies.
Shhht!
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
Only a faint tearing sound, like fabric being ripped.
And then, that entire section of the world seemed to be forcibly erased by an invisible giant hand.
The countless incoming arrows, the Quincies drawing and firing them, even the sturdy watchtower and the continuous buildings behind it, all of it vanished in an instant.
All that remained was a perfectly smooth cut, like a mirror, and blue spirit particles drifting through the air.
"Th-this… what is this?", Uryu was stunned.
His pupils trembled violently, his throat so dry he couldn't make a sound.
He had heard before, from people like Kyoraku and Urahara, that his father was a powerhouse, maybe even stronger than some captains.
But he had never imagined it would be this kind of strength.
'Just a wave of the hand, and everything was erased?'
This completely surpassed his understanding of Quincies.
Even in his current state, he could only achieve something like that through certain methods.
But the stubbornness and defiance carved into his bones still forced him to straighten his back.
"Hah!"
Uryu took a deep breath, forcing that arrogant expression back onto his face. A faintly provocative smile curled at his lips.
"Ryuken, didn't you always say you arranged everything for me? Ever since I was a kid, you forced me to study medicine, forced me to give up the glory of being a Quincy. And now what? You ran off to become one of the Espada of the Hollow King Palace?"
It was absurd.
The man who always talked about profit and efficiency, the man who claimed Quincies couldn't make money had actually become part of the Hollow King Palace.
"That doesn't matter."
Ryuken's expression didn't change in the slightest, as if he were stating an obvious fact.
"I've already arranged a way out for you. In the Paradise Special Region in the new world, the position of Minister of Medical Affairs is vacant. As long as you build enough credentials, you can be promoted to the Holy Land later."
"Paradise Special Region? Holy Land?"
Uryu froze for a moment. He didn't fully understand those terms, but instinctively, he felt a suffocating sense of control from those words.
'Again! That same feeling of being treated like a puppet on strings.'
"Stop joking!"
Uryu clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging into his palms. Defiant anger burned in his eyes.
He lifted his head. His young face was filled with rebellion against authority.
"Ishida Ryuken! I'm not that kid who could only do whatever you said anymore! I've obtained that person's power. I'm stronger than you now! Stronger than everyone here!"
"My life doesn't need you interfering! I have the right to choose—"
Before he could finish, his voice suddenly cut off.
Because in the instant he blinked, the figure that had been dozens of meters away was suddenly right in front of him.
Not even a hint of wind had stirred.
Ryuken still wore that indifferent expression, one hand in his pocket. His right index finger had somehow already lightly pressed against Uryu's heart.
"Is that so?"
Ryuken's voice was soft, but it struck Uryu like a heavy hammer.
"Children always think they've grown up. They think once their wings are strong enough, they can fly out of the cage. But they never realize how vast the sky is, or how ignorant they are."
Uryu's entire body stiffened. Cold sweat instantly soaked his back.
His body wanted to move, wanted to counterattack, wanted to activate his abilities to escape, but in front of that seemingly ordinary finger, all his spiritual pressure was completely suppressed. He couldn't move even a single finger.
"When you truly become stronger than me…"
Ryuken's eyes remained utterly emotionless.
"Then come talk to me about your so-called choices."
BOOM! BOOM!
The moment his words fell, a dazzling blue spirit beam erupted from the tip of his finger.
There was no suspense.
Uryu felt like he had been hit head-on by a high-speed train. He instantly lost control of his body and was blasted away like a cannonball.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
His body smashed through countless walls in an instant, carving a deep trench across the ground. Buildings along the way collapsed like paper.
"Ugh!"
He struggled desperately in midair, trying to gather spirit particles to steady himself, trying to use his new abilities to turn things around.
But he couldn't.
Nothing worked. Every method failed.
The spirit particles that had entered his body clung to him like parasites, precisely sealing off every pathway of his spiritual power.
He could only be battered farther and farther away under that unstoppable force, like a ragdoll.
His vision gradually blurred.
Amid the flying debris and smoke, he could only watch as that white figure, still standing in place, one hand in his pocket, not even a corner of his clothes disturbed, grew smaller and smaller, until it disappeared from sight.
At that moment, Ishida Uryu finally understood a cruel truth.
Even with so-called godly power, in front of that man, he was still just a child who hadn't grown up.
'Damn that useless Yhwach!'
'This is the "power of God" you talked about?'
'I can't even withstand one of the lower-ranked Espada, what am I supposed to win with this?'
As for why he thought he was lower-ranked, aside from the 4th Espada, all the other top 5 had already appeared.
Judging by his father, there was no way he was the 4th. Most likely, he was just the weakest among the yet-to-appear ones, the 7th Espada.
Uryu cursed wildly in his mind, but he still couldn't stop himself from being pushed farther and farther back, until he finally crashed into a battlefield that had already become ruins.
"Well now~ looks like another guest has been sent over."
A lazy, seductive female voice slid across the smoke-filled battlefield like silk, drifting lightly into Uryu's ears.
Having barely stabilized himself after crashing through a clock tower, Uryu instinctively looked toward the voice.
On the ruins not far away stood a graceful woman.
She had long black hair like ink, flowing smoothly down to her calves, swaying gently in the wind.
Her long black sleeve covered half her face, revealing only a pair of soul-stealing eyes. Even just standing there, her entire body radiated a suffocating, eerie charm.
Uryu only needed to glance at her once before his mind went blank, as if his soul was about to be sucked into those eyes. He even forgot to breathe.
"Mmm…"
The woman's brows knit slightly, a hint of displeasure flashing in her eyes.
Immediately, an invisible mental wave washed over him like cold water.
Uryu shuddered and snapped back to his senses. Cold sweat instantly drenched his clothes.
He realized with shock that he had nearly lost consciousness just now.
If she hadn't deliberately snapped him out of it, that single glance might have turned him into a walking corpse.
Only then did he notice the distinctive black-and-white uniform she wore.
"You're also an Espada?"
Uryu's voice trembled. Another Espada he had never seen before.
And when his gaze swept the surroundings, his pupils shrank violently.
At the woman's feet, two bodies lay silently.
Quilge Opie. Pepe Waccabrada.
These two, who were considered fairly strong among the Sternritter, now lay there like discarded trash. There wasn't even any visible wound on their bodies. They had simply died without a sound.
"How rude, little brother."
The woman lowered her sleeve, revealing a face beautiful enough to overturn nations. A mysterious smile curved her lips.
"Let me introduce myself. I am the 6th Espada of the Hollow King Palace, Sung-Sun."
"6th Espada?"
A storm surged in Uryu's heart.
His father, who had just kicked him away like a ball with unfathomable strength, was only ranked 7th, and this seemingly delicate woman was actually above him?
After personally experiencing his father's strength, his understanding of the Espada of the Hollow King Palace had been completely reshaped.
Every single one of them… was likely a being comparable to Yhwach.
"Your father really treats you quite well."
Sung-Sun ignored his shock and instead remarked meaningfully.
"Why do you say that?"
Uryu asked, confused, while his body tensed, ready to fight at any moment, even though he knew it might be futile.
"Why?"
Sung-Sun seemed to hear something amusing and covered her mouth as she laughed softly.
"If it wasn't to give you, you foolish kid, a chance to get close to Yhwach and steal a portion of his power, do you really think, with your father's personality, he would've let you swagger into the Wandenreich to die?"
"If it wasn't to protect you, his troublesome son, why would that attack of his deliberately send you to me, instead of throwing you into those other battlefields where everyone's killing with red eyes?"
Hearing this, Uryu instinctively turned his head and looked around.
Aside from the far distance where Rosse and the top three Espada were still confronting Yhwach, the rest of the battlefield had already turned into a living hell.
Violent spiritual pressure raged like a hurricane. Explosions and screams echoed without end.
Even the direction he had just been blasted from had already become hell itself.
Ishida Ryuken walked calmly through the Quincy ranks with one hand in his pocket.
Every time he raised his hand, groups of Quincies died, and large sections of buildings collapsed along with them.
There wasn't the slightest hesitation in his killing. Instead, there was a deep, bone-cutting hatred and release in it.
It looked like… revenge.
[🎉 Shoutout to Vey, Felix and Erik for joining p@treon. Thank you very much.🤗]
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