Sasakibe Chojiro took a step forward. His thin figure stood in front of all the survivors.
The air froze at that moment.
The setting sun was red like blood. Through the ruined wreckage, it slanted across the white captain's haori that symbolized the First Division captain, reflecting a glaring and bleak dark red glow.
Behind him were his battered companions, so injured they could barely stand.
In front of him were Rosse and Aizen, floating in the air, looking down on everyone like gods.
Sasakibe Chojiro took a deep breath.
His voice was not loud. It did not even carry much spiritual pressure. Yet across the silent battlefield, it spread clearly into every corner.
"Lord Rosse."
This was the first time he had called that name so directly and seriously.
The respect he once showed as the First Division captain was gone, and so was the distance he usually kept on purpose.
At this moment, his tone held only a calmness close to tragedy.
"I was once Head Captain Yamamoto's follower."
His gaze slowly swept across the scorched battlefield.
He saw the dead look in Hyosube Ichibe's eyes. He saw the struggle and confusion on Kuchiki Byakuya's face. He also saw the acceptance in Nimaiya Oetsu's eyes, as though he had already seen through life and death.
"For a thousand years, the order of Soul Society was built by Head Captain Yamamoto himself. And generation after generation, we Soul Reapers of the Gotei 13 protected it with our blood and lives."
"And you were once the strongest and fairest part of that order after Head Captain Yamamoto."
Sasakibe Chojiro's voice trembled slightly. It carried memories of the past and pain. But he still forced his bent back straight.
"We trusted you. Relied on you. After Head Captain Yamamoto died, we even entrusted Soul Society's future to you. But now…"
He paused, raised his head, and accused him word by word.
"You want to destroy all of it with your own hands."
Facing Rosse's indifferent gaze, he continued, "I have no killing intent. I am weak, and I cannot fight against someone like you. I also do not want to be your enemy. But today, I stand here and draw my sword for the land Head Captain Yamamoto protected with his entire life. I stand here so his legacy and traces can continue to remain."
"If you truly do not intend to completely destroy Soul Society…"
He slowly drew the Zanpakuto at his waist. The thin rapier-like blade reflected his face, twisted slightly from pain yet unusually firm.
"Then every drop of blood we shed here today, and Captain Kyoraku's deaths, will all become meaningless."
"I do not know how to persuade you to stop, and I do not have the power to stop you."
He spoke softly, his tone filled with endless bleakness and questioning.
"But today, I must ask…"
"The evolution you pursue… does it really have to come at the cost of Soul Society's destruction?"
After those words fell, even the wind seemed to stop.
Even Zaraki Kenpachi and Kirinji Tenjiro, who had been fighting wildly in the distance, seemed to feel that determined sorrow. Their movements slowed for a moment without meaning to.
Everyone's eyes focused on the white-haired captain standing at the very front, his figure thin but unshakable.
"Evolution?"
In the sky, Rosse looked down at Sasakibe Chojiro. There was little anger in his eyes from being questioned. Instead, there was only boredom.
"Sasakibe, your perspective is still trapped within the limits of ordinary people."
Rosse spoke calmly, "I never treated simple evolution as my final goal. Nor do I need to use a barren world like yours as nourishment for my evolution. The reason I allowed today's situation to happen was simply because I wanted to stand above and watch. Under the violent storm of life and death, I wanted to see what kind of brilliance the heroes of Soul Society could produce."
Things had already reached this point. Rosse had basically seen all the different sides of human nature he wanted to see.
He was not sure how much light these defeated remnants could still produce, but he still held a little expectation.
At the very least, after he applied a bit of pressure, Sasakibe Chojiro, who had always endured silently and only wanted to remain in others' shadows, had finally stepped forward and faced him directly.
"Taking pleasure in playing with people's hearts and enjoying others' suffering… that truly is a terrible personality, Lord Rosse," After hearing that arrogant declaration, Sasakibe Chojiro let out a light sigh and slowly lowered the Zanpakuto in his hand.
He raised his head slightly, determination showing in his eyes.
"Then, Lord Rosse, since you only wished to watch a play, this play should now come to an end. I want to know, in your script, what exactly is Soul Society's ending? And what is the ending of the Gotei 13? I hope you will answer honestly."
This was what Sasakibe Chojiro cared about most at this moment.
Back then, Head Captain Yamamoto established the foundation of Soul Society's thousand-year order with the unbeatable Ryujin Jakka.
And now, all of it stood at the edge of annhilation.
He did not want every trace proving Head Captain Yamamoto had once existed in this world to disappear completely.
As for his own old life, the moment he decided to step forward, he had already thrown it aside.
"The ending?"
Rosse smiled. Like a merciful god, he looked around at the despairing people below.
"I already said earlier, I never forced an ending onto any of you. Your own cowardice, arrogance, and prejudice brought you step by step to where you are today."
"Even now, I still will not force a fixed dead end onto you. Whatever kind of ending you want, I will grant you the matching ending. If you want Soul Society to remain, if you want the name of the Gotei 13 to continue…"
Rosse looked at Sasakibe Chojiro, his voice carrying a bit of expectation.
"Then it depends on you, or all of you, and how dazzling a will you can show for that wish, and what kind of price you can pay."
"Then…"
Sasakibe Chojiro suddenly raised his head. His aged eyes stared firmly at Rosse in the sky as he spoke with force in every word.
"Right now, I want Soul Society and the Gotei 13 to continue existing! What price must be paid, Lord Rosse?"
"Captain Sasakibe, what are you doing?"
At that moment, the silent Kuchiki Byakuya suddenly spoke coldly.
His brows were furrowed. His expression was extremely complicated as he looked at the old man beside him, bent over as though begging for charity.
People were always like this.
When disaster arrived and nobody had stepped forward to escape yet, everyone kept hesitating and struggling inside, weighing the gains and losses.
But once they saw someone truly throw away their dignity and try to exchange humiliation for survival, the sense of honor and pride hidden inside those who considered themselves noble would suddenly burst out for no reason.
In Sasakibe Chojiro's own mind, he was still standing tall. He was fighting for a legacy.
But in the eyes of someone like Kuchiki Byakuya, who valued noble honor above life itself, Sasakibe's back at this moment was bent to the extreme, no different from a dog kneeling before an enemy and wagging its tail for mercy.
At this moment, Kuchiki Byakuya finally understood.
He completely understood why his grandfather, Kuchiki Ginrei, had chosen the cruelest way to die without hesitation the moment the battle began.
Because no matter how ruined the situation became, no matter whether the ending was life or death, as the captain of the Sixth Division and the head of the leading noble family, the family's thousand-year honor had to be protected and upheld by the purest blood.
If today he, Kuchiki Byakuya, lowered his head to Rosse, the man who destroyed Soul Society, just to stay alive and continue on, then would that family barely surviving still be the proud and noble Kuchiki family?
"I am very certain that right now, I am doing what I believe is right, Captain Kuchiki."
Facing Byakuya's questioning, Sasakibe Chojiro did not turn around. His voice was calm like still water.
He was not a noble. He had no grand ambition to bring glory to his family.
He was only a simple follower. An incapable student. He only wanted to protect the little piece of land Head Captain Yamamoto left behind.
If Rosse did not destroy Soul Society, then no matter how much blame he carried, even if he lived like a sinner, he would stay with this broken world and guard it until the day he died of old age.
"In that case… I have nothing more to say," Kuchiki Byakuya closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
When he opened them again, the confusion and struggle inside them had completely vanished, leaving only cold silence.
He also stepped forward, walking past Sasakibe Chojiro.
He raised his head slightly. His body left the pull of gravity, as though he were stepping on invisible stairs, walking toward Rosse in the sky step by step with complete elegance.
Every step he took looked calm and unhurried.
On the way toward death in the sky, he even had the spare attention to slowly straighten his somewhat messy Shihakusho collar, smooth out the scarf around his neck that symbolized noble status, and arrange his appearance into the most perfect and flawless state possible.
Rosse silently watched him. There was no displeasure in his eyes from being interrupted. Instead, there was clear admiration.
Under Rosse's gaze, and the sorrowful eyes of everyone below, Kuchiki Byakuya slowly walked into the sky until he finally stopped at the same height as Rosse.
Throughout the long process, nobody tried to stop him. Even Rosse and Aizen did nothing.
It was as though they were admiring a beautiful work of art about to shatter, allowing him to walk before them.
But because of the difference in height between the two, even standing on the same level, Kuchiki Byakuya still needed to look slightly upward to meet Rosse's eyes.
"And what is your choice, Captain Kuchiki?"
Rosse looked at the cold noble before him and asked softly.
"Scatter, Senbonzakura."
Kuchiki Byakuya did not answer Rosse's question with words.
Without expression, he drew the Zanpakuto at his waist and held the blade vertically before him, turning it upside down before letting go.
The blade sank into empty space, sending ripples outward.
With his actions, he declared the final and proudest choice of himself as the twenty-eighth head of the Kuchiki family.
Boom!
Hundreds of millions of pink cherry blossom petals burst from the void like a brilliant storm, instantly swallowing both him and Rosse completely.
After the Royal Guard training, Kuchiki Byakuya was no longer the captain who could barely maintain third-class spiritual pressure.
Now, even when only using Shikai, the sharp intensity of his spiritual pressure had already reached the shocking level of first-class spiritual might.
Ironically, all of this was thanks to Rosse. Earlier, Rosse had allowed everyone to evolve through the Hogyoku to raise the Soul Reapers' strength.
Without Rosse, they would never even have touched this level of power.
Countless brilliant cherry blossom blades, like a pink meat grinder, crazily slashed across the Hollow King robe on Rosse's body.
But what brought despair was that the sharp blades, which normally could slice any Menos into pieces, became completely useless the moment they touched the plain black robe. They caused no damage at all, not even leaving behind a white mark.
Those terrifying cherry blossoms capable of killing people seemed to truly become ordinary soft petals before Rosse.
Their only effect was adding a tragic beauty to the battlefield.
"Not bad resolve. A very pure belief."
Standing in the center of the cherry blossom storm, Rosse remained completely unharmed. He even leisurely raised his hands and applauded softly while being pierced by countless blades.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
The clear sound of applause mixed with the sharp scraping noise of the cherry blossom blades. Within that overwhelming tragedy, it carried a hopeless kind of mockery.
Kuchiki Byakuya still said nothing.
There was no discouragement on his cold face. He only raised his hand lightly and pushed the spiritual pressure inside him to its limit.
"Bankai! Senbonzakura Kageyoshi!"
Even more violent cherry blossom blades rose from every direction, turning into a sky full of pink waves that swept toward Rosse with crushing force.
Yet facing those billions of beautiful and deadly blades, Rosse only smiled silently.
Then, in an extremely casual motion, he slowly drew the Zanpakuto at his waist.
Draw!
Slash!
Sheathe!
To everyone below, it looked like an ordinary swing without anything special.
But in Kuchiki Byakuya's eyes, as the one facing the strike directly, the entire world froze at that instant.
He felt as though he had been nailed in place in midair. The surrounding space was completely sealed off, and time stretched longer.
He had nowhere to dodge and nowhere to escape. He could only watch helplessly as that silver slash expanded endlessly in his pupils like the scythe of death.
At this moment, in the final second of his life, Kuchiki Byakuya finally vaguely understood just how terrifying Rosse's level truly was.
Back then, when he was still a young child who had just entered the dojo, he had felt this same unavoidable suffocating pressure when facing the merciless wooden sword swung by his grandfather, Kuchiki Ginrei.
But at that time, he was only a child who did not even know swordsmanship.
And his grandfather was already a veteran captain who had experienced countless battles.
Now, he, Kuchiki Byakuya, already stood at the peak of Soul Society.
Yet painfully, he realized that the gap between himself and Rosse was even greater than the gap between that child and his grandfather back then, greater by countless times.
Between them stood a divide between god and mortal, something a human like him could never cross even if he spent his entire life trying.