The following noon, the sun blazed at its peak. The sky above Karakura Town stretched clear and cloudless, without so much as a wisp to mar it.
Without any warning, the sky tore open.
Jagged, pitch-black rifts split the air from nothing, and from their far side came a Spiritual Pressure so immense it was suffocating—an avalanche of power that crashed down and swallowed the entire city within the barrier in an instant. The Shinigami stationed at the four corners of the perimeter looked up almost simultaneously, their expressions draining of color.
Then, one after another, silhouettes stepped through those grotesque Garganta tears and came to hover in the sky above Karakura Town.
At the vanguard stood Soifon, Sōsuke Aizen, Kaname Tōsen, and Gin Ichimaru. Behind them, the Espada—led by Starrk, Harribel, and Nelliel—fanned out in formation alongside their Fracción, each one radiating the ferocious aura unique to an Arrancar.
Almost the instant they revealed themselves, the empty sky on the opposing side erupted with movement. The Captains and Vice-Captains of the Gotei 13, clad in white Captain's Haori and black Shihakushō, appeared via Shunpo in a line, facing the invaders across the vast divide.
At the same moment, the Kidō Corps members already in position on the ground below channeled their Spiritual Power simultaneously into the pre-designated nodes.
The four Tenkaikekchū erupted with pillars of blinding light that pierced the heavens. Within the span of a single second, the transfer barrier—large enough to encompass all of Karakura Town—completed its swap with the replica town held in Soul Society.
The true battlefield had been relocated to the skies and ground above that duplicate world.
At the edge of that battlefield, in the shadows of the Ishida villa, several figures clad in white uniforms quietly materialized from the darkness.
"A decoy switch... I didn't expect this," Haschwalth said with a note of exasperation, looking around at the now-empty room. Every barrier they had prepared in advance had been rendered completely useless.
"There's no time to set up new ones now. Suppress your Spiritual Pressure," Uryū Ishida advised, pushing his glasses up. After all, their mission was not to participate in battle, but to observe and record.
In the ranks of the Gotei 13, several gazes locked with fierce intensity onto the enemy's vanguard—onto that petite yet strikingly conspicuous figure at the very front.
Momo Hinamori. Rukia. Rangiku Matsumoto. Unohana Retsu. Isane Kotetsu.
The moment they saw Soifon standing calmly at Aizen's side, facing them across that vast, silent distance, it was as if an invisible hand had seized each of their hearts and squeezed.
Nails dug into palms. The emotions swirling in their eyes defied any simple description.
They all understood: this might be the last chance to bring Soifon back.
And yet, Soifon deliberately avoided meeting their gazes, keeping her eyes fixed squarely on the Captain-Commander.
"Am I imagining things...?"
"The way those female Shinigami over there are looking at Lady Soifon seems really off," Nelliel murmured, leaning close to Harribel.
"You're not imagining it," Harribel said with a nod. "I feel it too."
The atmosphere grew heavy. Battle was a single breath away from igniting.
The Captain-Commander stepped forward, positioning himself in front of the assembled Gotei 13. He opened the eyes he had kept half-lidded, and killing intent bled into his gaze.
"Aizen! Soifon!" His voice rang out like a thunderclap. "Look at what you have created—what manner of abomination against all natural order!"
The Captain-Commander's eyes swept over the Arrancars arrayed behind them, ultimately settling on the foremost six, whose Spiritual Pressure was unmistakably Hollow in nature—and yet bore not a single Hollow trait on the outside.
"What is your purpose!"
As he spoke, his scorching Spiritual Pressure surged outward in all directions like a catastrophic tidal wave, bearing down on the forces from Hueco Mundo.
At that moment, Sōsuke Aizen slowly raised one hand.
It was such a simple gesture—and yet his Reiatsu poured forth with it, colliding and grinding against the Captain-Commander's pressure until the very air between them became transparent, warping and groaning under the strain.
After a long moment, that first clash of wills between the two concluded.
The Captain-Commander's expression grew grave. Sōsuke Aizen alone had already changed in ways he couldn't fully parse—to say nothing of Soifon, who had yet to make a single move at Aizen's side.
Perhaps the sacrifices in this battle will far exceed what I had imagined...
"Attack."
In an instant, Aizen swept his hand forward. The Espada and their Fracción behind him flickered and vanished like fireworks detonating across the sky, each one streaking at blinding speed toward one of the four Tenkaikekchū.
The battle erupted over the skies of the replica Karakura Town with a thunderous roar!
The moment the Espada moved, the Captain-Commander had already stepped forward. Ryūjin Jakka cleared its sheath, and a single slash carved through the air—
"Jōkaku Enjō!"
Without a single word of incantation, a wall of blazing fire materialized from nothing. In an instant, it constructed an enormous fortress of flame—a towering cubic cage that completely engulfed the four who had not yet moved: Sōsuke Aizen, Soifon, Gin Ichimaru, and Kaname Tōsen.
The inferno roared skyward, twisting the air and sealing off everything within from without. The temperature was enough to reduce an ordinary Vice-Captain-level Shinigami to ash in moments.
Inside the flame cage, the heat was horrifying—so intense that even one's line of sight shimmered and warped in the heatwaves.
Sōsuke Aizen stood with both hands tucked casually into the pockets of his white trousers. He had no intention whatsoever of breaking free. Instead, he decided to use every ounce of available stimulus to accelerate the Hōgyoku's evolution within him.
"My, my..." Gin Ichimaru wiped the sweat beading on his forehead with his sleeve. "Now that is a terrifying temperature..."
And yet, one person did not wait.
Soifon paid the surrounding heat—hot enough to melt iron—absolutely no mind. The moment the flame cage finished forming, she simply took a step forward.
Cobalt-blue Spirit Particle patterns bloomed instantly across her exposed neck and the skin of her arms, spreading outward in an intricate web as Blut Vene activated. With that barrier in place, Soifon regarded the wall of fire before her as though it simply didn't exist.
The flames of Ryūjin Jakka—capable of incinerating all things—met that layer of Blut Vene and reacted as if they had slammed into an absolute, immovable wall. The fire hissed and crackled with impotent fury against it, unable to penetrate even a fraction of an inch, unable even to slow her stride.
And then, beneath the Captain-Commander Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's abruptly contracting pupils, Soifon walked out of the crimson fortress of flame, one step at a time.
The blaze sealed shut behind her, continuing to hold Aizen and the other two within—but that was no longer any concern of hers.
Fireballs peeled spontaneously from the flame wall and roared after her with a scorching shriek, but Soifon swatted them out of existence with a casual backhand in the next second.
The Captain-Commander's brow furrowed deeply. He stared at her unblinkingly, the tendons on the back of the hand gripping Ryūjin Jakka's hilt rising to the surface.
It was a Shikai technique, yes—but it was also one of his area-control abilities used without any restraint. The Captain-Commander had never once seen anyone break through it with such effortless ease.
"Worry not, Captain-Commander."
Soifon folded her arms across her chest, her gaze drifting calmly down toward the battlefield below.
"Though I am cooperating with Aizen, I am not his enforcer."
---
Inside the Ishida villa.
Clang—
Haschwalth stared, transfixed, at the small figure walking out of the inferno in the sky above...
Second Division... Captain... Soifon... defection... Shinigami... Blut... Vene...
It came back to him. All of it came back.
No wonder—no wonder Haschwalth had always felt that Soifon looked vaguely familiar. It was her.
The criminal who had raided the Wandenreich that year and abducted Meninas—it had been Soifon all along!
Boom—
"I see now..." Haschwalth put his fist through a table and slowly raised his head. "If my guess is correct, Meninas is currently in Hueco Mundo..."
Small wonder, he supposed, that the Quincies of the Wandenreich had spent so long isolated from the world—their imaginations had grown dangerously threadbare. So many of them, and not a single one had managed to connect the Soifon of today to the short woman from that incident all those years ago.
"Should we use this opportunity—while their combat strength is deployed in the World of the Living—to launch an attack on Hueco Mundo?"
Lille Barro polished the barrel of his sniper rifle.
"Oh? We're attacking Hueco Mundo!?"
Gerard Valkyrie shot up from his chair and moved to Haschwalth's side, practically vibrating with eagerness.
"That is not a decision I can make, Lille Barro. Gerard." Haschwalth opened his clenched fist, releasing the tension from his grip. "Our immediate priority is to report the truth to His Majesty..."
"Uryū Ishida—leave this place to us. Return to the Empire and brief His Majesty on the situation."
Haschwalth turned to Uryū Ishida and delivered his order.
____
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