Ulquiorra's death did not ripple out to affect the other battles being fought across the field.
"The 4th—he's dead?"
Nelliel murmured it with a faint, quiet sadness. After all, he had been a colleague for several decades.
"It seems the Shinigami side isn't entirely useless after all. The one who killed the 4th looks like it was one of Lady Soifon's students."
Harribel deflected Hitsugaya's sneak attack with a casual flick of her arm, exchanging idle remarks with Nelliel as she did.
"Hey, you two—" Rangiku Matsumoto stepped forward, alert, after pulling back the restless Hitsugaya. "Are you on good terms with Captain Soifon?!"
"And you are?" Harribel crossed her arms and tilted her chin upward slightly, looking Rangiku over with unhurried appraisal.
"Rangiku Matsumoto." Rangiku kept her eyes fixed on the two of them. "I don't know if Captain Soifon ever mentioned me, but she and I have been close friends for decades."
—?!
Lady Soifon's close friend?!
Nelliel and Harribel both startled at that—but they couldn't very well disbelieve it, because that name was one Soifon had genuinely introduced to them before.
Which meant the others present must be Lady Soifon's students, then?
The two of them let their gaze sweep across the assembled group—and, belatedly, they noticed that even the abilities of the Zanpakutō on display matched up perfectly with what they'd been told.
This called for diplomacy, and fast.
The two exchanged a glance with each other—thank goodness we didn't go all-out just now.
Lady Soifon had said to look after her students, after all.
Click.
In the next instant, both of them sheathed their blades at the exact same moment. "Since you are Lady Soifon's old friend, we have no reason to raise our hands against you..."
All it took was a brief round of introductions. The Shinigami and the Arrancar, who mere moments ago had been glaring at one another with blades half-drawn, abruptly became impossibly harmonious—even Hitsugaya's soaring ice dragon took on an air of social decorum.
The clumsy ice dragon lumbered after Nelliel—then was blasted to splinters by a fireball that Momo Hinamori had released "by accident," sending a shower of frost and ice crystals scattering in every direction.
"Is that right? So Teacher Soifon had such a hard time of it in Hueco Mundo..."
Rukia listened as the two of them recounted their time with Soifon, and let out a quiet sigh.
"The Shin'ō Academy textbooks do say that Hueco Mundo is resource-scarce—nothing there but sand."
With Haineko deployed above to block any line of sight from overhead, Rangiku Matsumoto didn't even bother pretending—she simply dropped down and sat cross-legged on the ground.
"You're not wrong..."
Harribel offered no argument. She simply nodded.
"I have a question—" Momo Hinamori tilted her head back to look up at them. "Was it Teacher Soifon who told you to hold back?"
"It was Lady Soifon's wish."
A distant boom rang out from the direction of one of the Tenkaikekchū as Harribel answered.
Unlike the other two pillars, where NO.2 and NO.3 were content to slack off and coast, the remaining two pillars were in the thick of furious combat—the crash of clashing Spiritual Pressures and the ring of steel on steel forming a relentless cacophony.
After Soifon had taken out two of the Espada, Lubi had finally seized the opportunity to advance in rank, claiming the NO.10 position. Now he and Yammy—NO.9—were pressing their assault on another one of the pillars together.
Lubi had driven the tentacles at his back straight through Iba's body, then casually flung him off and sent him crashing into the rubble of a collapsed high-rise below.
"Iba!"
Sajin Komamura was fully occupied with blocking Yammy's fists when he suddenly realized his subordinate's Spiritual Pressure was plummeting fast.
"Eyes on me!"
The words had barely fallen when Yammy concentrated a deep crimson Cero onto his fist and drove it into Komamura, sending them both plowing down into the wreckage below.
With that, every significant fighting force guarding the first pillar had been put on the ground.
"Which is exactly why," Soifon remarked calmly, coming to a stop at the Captain-Commander's side, her black Shihakushō making it almost impossible to tell whose side she was on, "the Captain-Commander has always been far too lenient with Zaraki Kenpachi."
"If Zaraki Kenpachi hadn't charged over here so recklessly to fight me on his own, those Espada would probably all be dead by now—cut down by him."
The instant Soifon drew close, every muscle in the Captain-Commander's body went taut. The hand wrapped around Ryūjin Jakka coiled with readiness.
It was uncannily reminiscent of how Soifon herself had reacted the moment Aizen had approached her during the captaincy examinations, all those years ago.
"What is your objective?" the Captain-Commander said, gradually releasing the tension in his body. "Going to all that trouble to restore Zaraki Kenpachi's strength—what do you stand to gain from it?"
Soifon shrugged. "It wasn't part of my plan. He simply stumbled into me on his own."
To be honest, after observing the battle from the sky for so long, Soifon felt a genuine measure of satisfaction at the improvement in the Gotei 13's overall fighting strength—Shūhei Hisagi in particular, who had somehow managed to achieve Bankai ahead of schedule.
Rangiku Matsumoto and several of Soifon's other students had all seen notable rises in their Spiritual Rank—either already crossing into the 3rd Spiritual Rank or standing right on the threshold of it.
It seemed that motivating people through hatred and grievance worked just as well in Soul Society as anywhere else. The ancients really did know what they were talking about.
All in all, the performance of Soifon's defection had served its purpose.
Now the question was how to rehabilitate her own image—and how to make amends to her students.
Thinking about that, a faint, uneasy expression crept across Soifon's face.
—She'd probably... be forgiven... right?
Lost in thought, she noticed Lubi preparing to collect a head with those revolting tentacles of his. Her hands curved into the shape of a drawn bow—and a massive spirit bow materialized in her grip without warning.
The Captain-Commander narrowed his eyes and watched from the side as he recognized that Soifon's target was not a Shinigami, but the disruptive, rampaging Arrancar.
Fwip—
The sound of air being torn apart cracked through the high sky—and then the piercing shriek of a projectile cutting clean through it, punching straight through Lubi right in the middle of his arrogant, crowing laughter.
Friendly fire?!
"—Divine retribution!"
Yammy's fist froze in midair. The arrow had startled him so badly he jerked his head skyward—and in that moment of distraction, Sajin Komamura, now fully recovered, brought his blade down and severed Yammy's right arm.
"Sloppy fighting." Soifon raised her spirit bow and turned it toward Yammy. "And you as well—letting something this trivial break your concentration..."
Another Quincy arrow streaked across the sky without pause, interrupting Yammy's furious attempt to power up into his transformed state—and erasing this hidden 0th-ranked Espada from existence entirely.
The reason was simple: Yammy's transformed state was genuinely grotesque, and Soifon had no desire to subject her eyes to it. Better to finish both of them off at once.
On the other side of the field, NO.7—Aaroniero Arruruerie—had been sizing up a trio that had been reduced to a carpet, eyeing Byakuya Kuchiki and the others, looking to cash in on an easy kill and pad his own record. He, too, had his head collected by Soifon in passing.
By this point, the majority of the Espada who had taken the field that day had been killed at the hands of their own allies.
"Is this really alright?" Gin Ichimaru looked toward Aizen with gleeful schadenfreude. "At this rate, with Captain Soifon cutting them down like this, we'll have no advantages left..."
"It doesn't matter."
"If Captain Soifon wants to kill them, let her."
The radiance of the Hōgyoku drifted through Aizen's eyes. He gave a small, untroubled smile at Gin Ichimaru's words and felt no anger whatsoever.
For two reasons: first, there was no point in falling out with Soifon over a handful of Espada. Second—Hōgyoku stage-three Aizen genuinely couldn't beat her anyway.
At this moment, apart from the battlefield where Shunsui Kyōraku and Jūshirō Ukitake were still locked in fierce combat, the other three fronts had either dissolved into everyone loafing around—or been swept clean entirely by the battle's biggest traitor.
PS: Things have been a bit hectic at work this week, so hitting a daily chapter has been a stretch. Today's Friday, so I'll write more once I'm home tonight... QAQ
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