'What is this power?'
'Is this a human?'
Asuka's gaze pierced through the heavy curtain of rain, landing on the young girl. It felt entirely surreal.
In this rainy night thick with the stench of blood, her radiance was as blinding as a sun tearing through the long night.
"Hey, are you two hurt?!"
Seeing that Asuka and Isshin didn't respond, the girl called out again.
But this also drew the monster's displeasure.
Those hollow eye sockets locked onto the bow-wielding girl, and a highly aggressive roar tore from the depths of its throat.
"Gaaaah—!!!"
It suddenly abandoned the injured Isshin Shiba, its figure blurring into a black gale as it lunged toward the girl.
"Crap! Dodge!" Isshin cried out in alarm, instinctively trying to move and intercept it.
But he had only taken half a step when the wound on his back burst into a mist of blood from the violent strain.
The piercing pain made his knees buckle, freezing him in place.
However, the young man in front of him had already dashed forward!
Asuka's lungs roared violently in that instant.
He forcibly squeezed every last trace of free Reishi within his spiritual body, commanding them to pump furiously into his legs—
"Thunderclap Flash: Instant Shadow!!"
*Buzz!*
Asuka's figure vanished instantly!
*Clang—!!!*
The black Hollow blade and the battered Asauchi clashed fiercely. Sparks exploded in the rain, only to be immediately extinguished by the downpour.
Riding the momentum of his charge, Asuka forcefully suppressed the monster's bone blade all the way to the ground, embedding it deeply into the asphalt.
But that was the extent of it. His sword was slowly being pushed back.
"Hey! You over there! Don't just stand there!" Asuka's voice was hoarse from overexertion. "Attack! My sword... won't hold much longer!"
Seeing this, the girl drew her longbow to a full moon, and several blue arrows shot forth like a torrential storm!
*Swish! Swish! Swish!*
These two strangers, who didn't even know each other's names, reached a bizarre, unspoken consensus in that moment.
Asuka handled the close-quarters combat, risking his life to desperately restrict its movements, while the girl utilized her exceptional long-range firepower to constantly disrupt the enemy's balance.
However, the tide of battle did not turn in their favor.
This guy was simply too fast.
Its unnatural fighting style allowed it to execute all sorts of momentum-defying evasions and lethal strikes in mid-air.
Unable to release his Zanpakuto, Asuka could only dodge wretchedly, narrowly avoiding the bone blade aimed at his throat time and time again.
The opponent's attacks lacked any discernible pattern. With every clash, Asuka could feel the Zanpakuto in his hands fracturing.
At this moment, the dark red rust on Nugata was actually peeling off bit by bit, revealing the heavily cracked blade beneath.
Meanwhile, on the roof of a distant high-rise building.
Three figures cloaked in black, their Spiritual Pressure completely concealed, quietly observed the scene.
"How unsightly."
A voice echoed from beneath a cloak, belonging to a dark-skinned swordsman.
His tone carried a hint of dissatisfaction and disgust. "He is the very first Hollow created using a Soul Reaper's soul as a foundation—[White]. He should be on an entirely different level from those previous failures... Yet he can't even handle a lowly squad member?"
"Calm down, Kaname."
Beside him, a silver-haired swordsman with squinted eyes kept his hands tucked into his sleeves. A cynical smile hung on his lips as he tilted his chin toward Isshin Shiba in the distance. "There's still a Captain there, isn't there?"
"But Isshin Shiba is injured. If it can't even finish off a Captain in their Shikai state, it only proves that it's a failure."
"Don't be so harsh. Besides, I think the way that kid with the broken sword moves is quite interesting. He's not like those old fogeys in the Gotei 13."
However, the man standing in the middle did not respond to his subordinates' idle chatter.
His face, which usually bore a gentle smile, now looked exceptionally thrilled.
His gaze pierced through the torrential rain, his ears completely deaf to what his subordinates were saying.
His eyes weren't fixed on the evolving White, nor the young Quincy girl, nor did he care about Isshin Shiba attempting to re-enter the fray.
He was dead set on the black-haired swordsman struggling bitterly in the rain.
He revealed an expression of absolute astonishment.
"Truly unbelievable... To think he actually returned... Just how did he do it..."
"Number Seventy-Eight..."
Back at the center of the battlefield, the situation had reached its most critical juncture.
White seemed to grow tired of this meaningless tug-of-war. It suddenly spread its arms, allowing one of Masaki's Reishi arrows to pierce straight through its chest.
Spurred by the intense agony, it channeled all its power into the bone blade on its right arm and viciously cleaved down toward Asuka!
"Not good!"
The black-cloaked man in the distance narrowed his eyes, even tempted to risk exposing his identity to stop White's action!
"Damn you! Stop!!"
Isshin Shiba roared as he charged down, but he was too late to intercept!
In that instant, Asuka felt the looming presence of death.
He wanted to dodge, but his body had reached its absolute limit. His legs refused to muster any strength.
*Crack—*
The crisp sound of shattering was startlingly abrupt, even amidst the roaring downpour.
Under White's full-powered slash, the already riddled Zanpakuto finally reached its breaking point.
Starting from the tip, the red and black metal shattered into pieces like fragile porcelain, turning into countless crystalline Reishi that dissipated into the air.
The blade was cleaved cleanly in two!
"...?!"
Asuka stared in shock at the remaining half of the blade in his hand.
The next second, the black bone blade sliced through his chest without any resistance.
*Pfft—!*
Blood sprayed wildly, dyeing the rainwater a ghastly dark red.
It was a massive, diagonal gash that tore open half of his chest cavity, exposing his beating heart and severed ribs.
"Asuka—!!!" Isshin Shiba's furious roar was drowned out by the rain.
Asuka's body flew backward like a kite with a snapped string, agonizing pain submerging him like a tidal wave.
But more terrifying than his physical injuries was the hollow emptiness echoing from the depths of his soul.
Nugata was broken.
This was his pillar in battle, his most important partner.
Asuka felt his connection to this world being forcibly severed.
In that moment, he felt a twinge of regret.
'I shouldn't have cared whether these Soul Reapers lived or died...'
His consciousness began to plummet.
He wasn't falling toward the ground, but into a boundless abyss.
The sound of the rain, the shouts, White's roars—everything rapidly faded away.
Asuka felt as if he had become a feather, drifting through a pitch-black void.
[Oi, mongrel... so this is all you're worth after all?]
An ancient, mocking voice echoed in his mind.
Asuka snapped his eyes open, finding himself standing on a perfectly white, immaculate mirror-like plain without a single speck of dust.
"This is..." Asuka looked at his hands, which still tightly gripped the shattered hilt.
"My inner world? No... this isn't it... Where's Nugata? Where is that guy?"
[Nugata? What a disgusting name.]
A pure white figure rose from the pristine mirror surface. If not for the faint, malicious glow radiating from its sides, Asuka wouldn't even be able to make out its silhouette.
It had no facial features, no clothing—just a singular, pure white.
The figure sneered, taking step after step toward Asuka.
[You used it to imitate those weak humans' Breathing Styles... You treated it like some fire poker to swing around.]
[You never truly looked at this blade... never truly listened to its name.]
As its words echoed, the pristine mirror world began to tremble, and countless broken swords rose from the mirrored surface, stretching endlessly toward the horizon.
It stopped in front of Asuka, suddenly grabbing him by the throat and lifting him entirely off the ground.
[Still, I ought to thank you. If you hadn't stuck your nose where it didn't belong, I might never have broken free of this restraint.]
[Listen carefully, mongrel who is neither human nor Shinigami. My name is—]
"Wake up! Asuka!"
A familiar voice rang out, causing the suffocating Asuka to suddenly feel the grip on his throat loosen.
He shifted his gaze to see a massive, snow-white wolf rushing over at breakneck speed!
"Wake up! Don't listen to it!!"
Outside.
White stared at Asuka, who lay motionless in a pool of blood, and prepared to deliver the final blow.
However, a sudden anomaly occurred.
Asuka, who was already on the brink of death with his Spiritual Pressure nearly extinguished, suddenly erupted with an extremely oppressive aura.
It was a pure, absolute nothingness that sought to strip away all life.
"Ah—so this is the secret of Central 46?"
Beneath the black cloak, Aizen Sosuke wore a smile filled with overwhelming desire.