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"Five days from now!"
"You, along with the entire Gotei Thirteen, are destined to be destroyed by the Wandenreich!!!"
Those same words echoed with unbearable arrogance.
Not only did they enrage the Yamamoto of the present, but the Yamamoto within the video as well.
He stepped forward, lowered his stance.
In one smooth motion, he drew his blade, then swung it with overwhelming force.
"Ryūjin Jakka—Incinerate!!!"
Blazing flames of unimaginable heat erupted instantly, forming a vast curtain of fire that swallowed the group of pure-blood Quincies in a flash.
The entire screen was once again drowned in crimson.
Even the office itself—its framework reinforced with killing stone—lost nearly half its space, melting into nothingness under that single strike of Ryūjin Jakka.
And there, the scene came to an end.
…only to be swallowed at last by a screen filled with raging flames.
At the same time, the Soul Society was thrown into complete turmoil.
"Damn it!!!"
A wrinkled hand slammed down hard.
The wooden desk, piled high with squad paperwork, exploded apart in an instant, splintering into fragments.
Through the flying debris and clouds of dust, the Commander-General's face could be seen clearly—purple with fury, so dark it looked ready to drip.
Compared to the man in the video, striking out in blind rage—
This version of him, who already knew what the future held, was even angrier.
"Commander-General, please calm yourself!"
Feeling the boundless rage rolling off the old man like a tidal wave, Chōjirō Sasakibe still felt his heart tremble in fear, even after a thousand years at his side.
He didn't even have time to process the grief of his own future death.
Hastily, he urged, "Those images just now were based on the original timeline! Now that the future has already started to change ahead of time, we still have plenty of chances to stop this tragedy! Please, Commander-General, don't fall for the enemy's scheme!"
The old Westerner rare as it was, managed to regain his composure.
He had never believed that the future was something set in stone.
If one knew what was coming and fought with everything they had, then there would always be a chance to turn fate around.
At the very least—
Thanks to the early exposure of that "recap" video,
They now knew that the human boy, Kurosaki Ichigo, was one of the key catalysts capable of changing the future.
"…You're right. I lost my composure."
Taking a deep breath, the Commander-General raised his eyes slightly. When he looked at Sasakibe again, there was unmistakable guilt and self-reproach in his gaze.
With a heavy sigh, he said, "To be honest… if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I never would've believed that you could die right under my nose, in such a miserable way."
"The one who should be apologizing… is me."
"…Haah."
Another long, weighty sigh.
That brutal scene of Sasakibe's death was burned into his mind, striking directly at the Commander-General's resolve.
He couldn't help but start questioning himself.
Was the future war the result of his own complacency, born from centuries of peace in the Soul Society?
Just then—
As the atmosphere grew heavier by the second,
The screen shifted once more, cutting to a different scene.
Boom!!!
Against a backdrop of endless warfare, explosions and clashing blades echoed without pause.
It was a familiar sight—the Seireitei, reduced to ruins by the outbreak of war.
But what surprised everyone was the figure the camera focused on.
Yhwach.
The same man who had stormed the Royal Palace during the earlier recap and led his elite guard to defeat Squad Zero.
"Kenpachi Zaraki…"
"I won't deny it. To slay three Sternritter in succession as a pure-blood Quincy—your ferocity proves I wasn't wrong about you."
"And it proves you deserve the title of one of the Five Special War Powers…"
Beneath his blood-red cloak, Yhwach raised an arm and seized Kenpachi by the throat, lifting his barely conscious body high into the air. His vicious face showed no change in expression at all.
Then—
Like tossing away a piece of trash, he flung him aside.
Bang!
Kenpachi crashed to the ground, grievously wounded.
His shihakushō was torn to shreds, soaked red with blood.
Before the Quincy King, the man who embodied battle itself seemed utterly powerless.
Naturally,
This scene sparked intense dissatisfaction from a certain "king of normal slashes."
"What the hell is this?!"
"Why am I just background decoration again? How many times does this make it already?! This is seriously pissing me off!"
Inside the Eleventh Division, Kenpachi roared in humiliation and rage, unable to stop himself from swinging a blade at the transparent screen.
Of course—
The golden sword pressure passed straight through.
Aside from wrecking the office, it did absolutely nothing to stop the video.
With no other choice, Kenpachi shut his eyes tight.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Better than watching this bad-luck nonsense.
"Wait a second… the Quincy King just said Captain Zaraki is one of the Five Special War Powers?!" Ikkaku Madarame frowned, catching onto that crucial detail.
At the same time, he turned to Ayasegawa Yumichika beside him, whose expression was just as serious.
"Yumichika, do you remember who else was listed as a Special War Power during the earlier recap?"
Raising an eyebrow, Yumichika answered uncertainly, "Urahara Kisuke? And… I think Kurosaki Ichigo was one too?"
"…I see."
Hearing that only deepened Ikkaku's confusion.
Urahara Kisuke and Kenpachi Zaraki—those made sense.
But Kurosaki Ichigo?
What qualified him to stand alongside them?
Did that human kid really possess limitless potential in the future, and actually live up to all of it?
Otherwise—
What reason would the Quincy King have to fear him enough to count him among those five?
As Ikkaku wrestled with those thoughts,
The video continued. Kenpachi had just fallen, unable to rise.
In the distance,
A roar like the eruption of an ancient volcano thundered forth.
Boom!!!
The air itself went berserk, letting out shrill cries.
In that moment, everyone—both those watching the screen and those within it—was drawn to the source of the sound as if caught by a spotlight.
Then they saw it.
A blazing crimson figure, like a burning meteor streaking through the sky,
Charging straight toward Yhwach's position.
"This is—"
"The Commander-General has entered the battlefield!!!"
"A clash of kings at last?!"
Through the scorching flames, once they recognized the fury-twisted face of the Commander-General,
Cheers erupted across the Seireitei, emotions igniting all at once.
After everything that had been built up in the earlier scenes—
Culminating in Sasakibe's sudden death—
Whether in the present or the future, the hatred between the two sides had already reached its breaking point.
And for the Commander-General in particular, that hatred burned the hottest of all.
So—
Blood would be repaid with blood.
He had to fulfill his vow and personally take Yhwach's head, offering it as tribute to his fallen friend.
Boom!!!
The sound of something massive hitting the ground shook the transparent screen violently.
Stepping through the lingering flames, the Commander-General landed, forming a vast, bottomless crater of fire beneath his feet.
A physical manifestation of the boundless rage in his heart.
"Yhwach…"
Bathed in flames burning at thousands of degrees, every step he took sent the surrounding temperature skyrocketing.
Beneath his drooping white eyebrows, his eyes gleamed with a murderous intent that looked ready to devour its prey.
With killing intent flooding his voice, the Commander-General declared:
"Defeated foe of a thousand years past."
"Here and now, I will wipe out every last one of you!"
"..."
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