Among the shattered ruins of Sōkyoku Hill, Reiatsu hung over the surroundings like a bank of heavy storm clouds.
The remaining captains spread out in a circle, surrounding Tōshirō Hitsugaya, Momo Hinamori, and Rangiku Matsumoto. Standing at the front was Kaien Shiba, captain of Squad Three. His brow was deeply furrowed, and his gaze remained fixed on Hitsugaya as he became the first to break the silence.
"Captain Hitsugaya," Kaien said gravely, "with your original strength, it should have been impossible for the three of you to temporarily stop the captains' combined attack.
"The same applies to Captain Potter. He was certainly powerful before, but nowhere near the level he has displayed today. He somehow managed to suppress both the Head Captain and Aizen. You must give us an explanation."
As soon as he finished speaking, the surrounding captains voiced their agreement.
"That's right," Soi Fon said coldly. "Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of Soul Society. Two captains concealed their true strength for decades without anyone discovering the truth.
"Even the Reiatsu of all three of you quietly reached Spirit Class One. What exactly are you planning?"
Hitsugaya calmly met the captains' probing gazes without the slightest attempt to evade them. He placed one hand on Hyōrinmaru's hilt, and his voice carried clearly across Sōkyoku Hill.
"Harry's strength has always been far beyond anything we understood. He has been this powerful from the beginning, strong enough to rival the Head Captain and perhaps even surpass him."
He paused and glanced at Hinamori and Rangiku before continuing.
"As for us, the reason our strength increased so drastically in such a short period, allowing us to barely keep pace with the battle between the Head Captain and Aizen, is that Harry reconstructed our spirit bodies."
The declaration struck the captains like a bolt of lightning.
Kaien abruptly stepped forward, disbelief filling his voice.
"Reconstructed your spirit bodies? How is that possible? A spirit body is the foundation of a Soul Reaper's power. The slightest mistake could cause someone's Reiatsu to run out of control or even destroy their soul completely. How could he dare perform something like that?"
"He didn't do it carelessly," Rangiku replied. "He was completely confident in his ability.
"Harry said our spirit bodies were restrained by inherent limitations. An ordinary Soul Reaper's spirit body can only contain a fixed quantity of Reiatsu. By disassembling reishi and reconstructing the structure of our spirit bodies, he was able to expand the amount of Reiatsu we could contain.
"As you can see, my Reiatsu is not only more stable, it has directly reached Spirit Class One, a level even most captains cannot attain. The power of my Zanpakutō has also become much stronger than before."
Hinamori nodded.
"The reconstruction process was extremely gentle. Harry first removed the unnecessary and impure reishi inside our spirit bodies, then filled the resulting gaps with pure reishi and reconstructed the paths through which our spiritual power flows.
"Afterward, I could perceive the consciousness of my Zanpakutō much more clearly. Even large-scale Kidō that I previously struggled to control can now be cast with ease."
Hitsugaya offered the final explanation.
"He did not forcibly increase our power. He merely helped us break through the natural limitations of our spirit bodies.
"Our present strength is the level we should have been capable of reaching, but the restrictions imposed by our spirit bodies prevented us from doing so.
"Without that reconstruction, we probably would not have survived even a single exchange against the Head Captain's Zanka no Tachi in Hueco Mundo."
The captains fell silent.
Shunsui Kyōraku raised a hand and adjusted the brim of his hat, staring toward Hueco Mundo with a complicated expression.
Reconstructing spirit bodies and expanding the upper limit of their Reiatsu was a field even Squad Zero had never dared explore, yet Captain Potter had accomplished it with apparent ease.
The moment Hitsugaya finished speaking, a disbelieving voice suddenly rang out from among the captains.
Mayuri Kurotsuchi raised his head sharply. His normally narrowed eyes were now open wide, his pupils filled with utter incredulity.
"Reconstructing spirit bodies? Reshaping spiritual pathways? Expanding the upper limit of Reiatsu?"
Mayuri's voice rose to an unusually sharp pitch, stripped of his usual self-assured composure. He hurried out of the captains' encirclement and stopped directly in front of Hitsugaya.
"Do you understand what that means? The structure of a spirit body is a fixed soul template established at the moment a Soul Reaper comes into existence. Even Squad Zero's technology can only repair damage to a spirit body. They would never recklessly alter the paths through which spiritual power flows.
"The slightest error would reverse the flow of Reiatsu and reduce the person being modified to an unconscious puppet!"
He abruptly turned toward Hueco Mundo, his voice filled with a mixture of scientific obsession and astonishment.
"That brat Harry Potter can accurately separate impure reishi and replace it with pure reishi?
"How did he identify the points restraining the spiritual pathways? What method did he use to stabilize the flow of Reiatsu? Was there not even the slightest rejection during the process?
"This is not technology that should exist in the modern era. This is soul engineering at least several centuries beyond anything Soul Society possesses!"
The intensity of Mayuri's reaction left every other captain stunned.
Shunsui scratched his head helplessly before trying to intervene.
"Captain Kurotsuchi, perhaps you should calm down a little."
Mayuri was a mad scientist and the director of the Shinigami Research and Development Institute. There was no possibility of him remaining calm after hearing something like this.
He ignored Shunsui and continued firing questions in rapid succession.
"Did he use some special reishi catalyst, or did he discover an entirely new energy circulation system for the soul? How did he accomplish this? He raised all three of you to Spirit Class One at the same time!"
The captains were astonished by his reaction.
Mayuri had always believed his intellect and technology to be superior to everyone else's. Never before had he shown such an intense desire to understand another person's techniques. There was even a trace of frantic urgency in his behavior.
Completely disregarding everyone's stares, Mayuri continued almost manically.
"Tell me, did he release any unusual reishi fluctuations during the reconstruction? Did he use a device similar to a spiritual anchor? Can his control reach the level of individual microscopic structures within the spiritual pathways?"
Hitsugaya looked at the nearly fanatical Mayuri and shook his head helplessly.
"Harry didn't use any technology. He accomplished it through the ability of his Zanpakutō."
Hitsugaya's words fell into the silence like a stone striking a still lake.
Mayuri abruptly froze, the obsession on his face solidifying into pure bewilderment.
"A Zanpakutō ability? Are you joking?"
His voice became so sharp that it was almost distorted.
"Spirit-body reconstruction requires atomic-level control over reishi and an absolute analysis of the soul's structure. That is technology. It is science! How could it possibly be the ability of a Zanpakutō?"
The other captains immediately erupted into heated discussion, clearly just as shocked by the answer.
Throughout the thousand-year history of the Gotei 13, Zanpakutō abilities had generally involved elemental manipulation, spatial interference, or the induction of illusions. There had never been one capable of directly reconstructing spirit bodies and overturning the fundamental structure of a soul.
While everyone was still arguing, Jūshirō Ukitake, who had remained silent until now, slowly stepped forward.
He raised one hand, signaling for everyone to quiet down. Once the commotion gradually subsided, he looked at Hitsugaya. His voice was slightly hoarse but exceptionally clear.
"Tōshirō, you said Harry's Zanpakutō can accomplish all of this. What exactly is the true ability of his Zanpakutō?"
Every gaze returned to Hitsugaya.
Hitsugaya took a deep breath. His ice-blue eyes passed over every captain present before he slowly answered.
"Harry said the ability of his Zanpakutō is to disassemble and reconstruct all reishi."
"Disassemble reishi and reconstruct it?" Ukitake repeated, gently furrowing his brow before coughing twice. "Do you mean something similar to Captain Kurotsuchi's technology, removing the impurities from a spirit body and replacing them with pure reishi?"
"It goes far beyond that," Hitsugaya said, shaking his head. There was a trace of awe in his voice that even he did not seem to notice. "I personally watched him disassemble the sand beneath our feet into reishi and reconstruct it into various drinks from the World of the Living.
"I watched him directly dismantle Cero into their most fundamental reishi particles, making those destructive attacks disappear into nothing.
"Reconstructing our spirit bodies was merely an application of that ability to our souls. He disassembled the reishi within our spiritual pathways and then used pure reishi to reconstruct wider channels for our Reiatsu.
"He did not need a single instrument throughout the entire process. He accomplished everything with nothing but the ability of his Zanpakutō."
Ukitake's voice carried undisguised astonishment.
"This has already surpassed the boundaries of a Zanpakutō. A Zanpakutō is the physical manifestation of a Soul Reaper's soul. No matter how powerful its ability may be, it should remain limited by the boundaries of that soul.
"But disassembling and reconstructing all reishi is more like commanding the laws themselves, controlling the very foundation of a world composed of reishi."
His words silenced the captains completely.
Mayuri opened his mouth, but for a long time, no words emerged.
The reishi technology he had spent his entire life researching seemed like a child's toy compared to Harry's Zanpakutō ability.
The suspicion in Soi Fon's eyes transformed into solemn apprehension. She finally understood how Harry had managed to suppress both the Head Captain and Aizen.
Shunsui sighed softly and tapped his folding fan against his palm, producing a dull sound. As he gazed in the direction of Hueco Mundo, his eyes were filled with concern and complicated thoughts.
The wind swept across Sōkyoku Hill once more, carrying loose stones through the ruined landscape. Looking into Hitsugaya's sincere eyes, the captains finally accepted the reality that had overturned everything they understood.
The Zanpakutō wielded by that young prodigy had already broken through the limits of a Soul Reaper's power, becoming something even the thousand-year-old Gotei 13 could not comprehend.
The oppressive Reiatsu over Sōkyoku Hill had yet to settle after the revelation of Harry's Zanpakutō ability when the gray sky suddenly began to distort violently.
A dark Garganta opened in midair without warning. The space around its edges rippled like the surface of water, and the reishi fluctuations emanating from it were more intense than anything they had sensed before. Even the broken stones on the ground were pulled upward by an invisible force and began to float.
The captains instinctively tightened their grips on their Zanpakutō and prepared for battle.
Then a figure dressed in black slowly stepped out of the Garganta.
White grains of sand from Hueco Mundo still clung to Harry's black robes, but he remained straight and unbowed.
In his left hand, he held the Head Captain by the collar. Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's Zanpakutō, Zanka no Tachi, was nowhere to be seen.
The old man's eyes were tightly closed, and his long white hair hung messily against his cheeks. The Reiatsu surrounding his aged body was so faint that it was almost impossible to detect. He had clearly lost consciousness completely.
Harry's right hand held Sōsuke Aizen in the same manner.
Several tears had been ripped through Aizen's white haori. His eyes were closed, and traces of blood that had not yet dried remained at the corner of his mouth.
The commanding presence of the man who had once acted as though he controlled everything had vanished, leaving only the battered appearance of someone who had suffered a complete defeat.
Their bodies seemed almost weightless in Harry's hands as he slowly descended to the ground.
Harry gently placed them both down. His movements were unhurried, and the silver-white reishi surrounding him slowly faded. Only the thin layer of dust covering his clothing offered any indication that he had just fought a grueling battle.
The moment Harry set the Head Captain and Aizen on the ground, Sōkyoku Hill fell into a brief, deathly silence.
Only the faint scraping of stones carried by the wind could be heard.
Amid that silence, Shunsui slowly closed the folding fan he had been waving. He stared at the two unconscious men on the ground, and his usual easygoing composure collapsed completely. His entire face twisted into a grim expression.
As one of the captains with the clearest understanding of the situation, he knew better than almost anyone how powerful those two men were.
Either one of them could have defeated all the other captains by himself.
Yet now, the two men who had once stood at the summit of Soul Society's power lay helplessly on the ground like discarded dolls.
Shunsui sighed softly, complicated emotions filling his voice.
"I never expected it. Even Captain Yamamoto and Aizen were defeated so completely."
Soi Fon's body was drawn as tightly as a bowstring. Her fingers turned white around the hilt of her Zanpakutō.
She had prepared herself to face an attack from Hueco Mundo, but she had never anticipated witnessing a scene like this.
Looking at the miserable condition of the Head Captain and Aizen, disbelief flashed through her eyes.
As Commander-in-Chief of the Onmitsukidō, she was accustomed to observing everything from the shadows and calmly making decisions. Even with the truth clearly displayed before her, however, she still could not fully accept it.
"Harry Potter... what method did he use to defeat both of them at the same time?"
After speaking, she instinctively glanced at the other captains to see their reactions, only to find the same astonishment reflected on every face.
Ukitake covered his chest and coughed violently several times. His complexion became even paler because of his chronic illness, but his gaze remained fixed on Harry, filled with astonishment.
He released a long sigh, painfully aware of his own helplessness.
Still, Aizen had not achieved the final victory, so this could not be considered the worst possible outcome.
Ukitake was more inclined than most to believe Harry's explanation. The most important reason he trusted Harry was that the Soul King's Right Arm within his body did not reject Harry. On the contrary, it seemed to yearn for Harry to absorb it.
No, that description was not quite accurate.
Mimihagi was afraid of Harry.
It longed to be absorbed by him because it believed that merging with Harry's body would be an unimaginable honor.
The feeling was difficult to comprehend, but Ukitake still chose to trust his instincts.
He first nodded to Shunsui, signaling for him to proceed according to their plan. Then he slowly spoke. Although his voice was quiet, every person present heard him clearly.
"Harry, since you have accomplished this much, none of us can oppose you any longer. We no longer possess the ability to stop you.
"Perhaps you can finally tell us your true plan."
Harry had never concealed very much from them in the first place. Now that he had achieved his final victory, he had even less reason to hide anything.
Harry smiled faintly.
"Everyone, there is no need to worry. From the beginning, I have never intended to harm this world. What I am about to do will ultimately produce an outcome that benefits both sides.
"I will devour the Soul King and completely replace him as the ruler of this world."
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