At this moment, Rukia was like the world's most brilliant magician. With just a slight flick of her wrist, the Zanpakutō in her hand was completely transformed.
The blade, the handguard, the hilt—aside from a snow-like white, there were no other colors to be found. It was no longer a weapon of slaughter but a work of art. It was the purest white jade in the world, untainted by a single speck of dust. Nor would any dust dare to taint it, for that would surely be a grave sin.
Yet, it was not merely a work of art. As it danced in her hand, it possessed a life of its own, like a sprite spreading its wings in a joyous dance. A pristine white ribbon slipped casually from her sleeve, yet it harbored an immense attachment, completely reluctant to let the wind carry it away from her.
But upon closer inspection, six-petaled white flowers were constantly dissipating. Only then would one sigh in sudden realization—that was the snow falling from her sleeve.
Was she a sprite of the snow? Perhaps no one knew the answer to this question, but even the snow was reluctant to dissipate. Her beautiful countenance could only be imagined, yet it was beyond imagination.
This was the most beautiful Zanpakutō in Soul Society—Sode no Shirayuki.
Although Ichigo did not know the name of Sode no Shirayuki, he was still astonished by its beauty. Even Rukia, surrounded by the snowy ribbon, seemed much prettier than he remembered. For the first time, Ichigo realized that Rukia was actually a woman.
Let alone Ichigo, even the Arrancar, Di Roy, stood completely motionless. His mouth hung open in a mesmerized daze. White. A completely white Zanpakutō. It was the exact opposite of the black that represented Shinigami, yet it did not look out of place at all.
White—this was the color of Hollows, yet at this moment, it had appeared in the hands of a Shinigami.
"Some no Mai, Tsukishiro."
Rukia did not care what her opponent was thinking. She swung Sode no Shirayuki through the air, and the snowy ribbon on the hilt twirled along with it.
Di Roy jolted awake, only to find that heaven and earth seemed to have inverted. Strands of snow lines, following their own unique trajectories, drifted toward the endless night sky.
Looking down, he saw that a circle of pure white had quietly appeared beneath his feet. It was more dazzling than the white sands of Hueco Mundo, and far colder.
Cold? Di Roy finally sensed that something was wrong, but before he could act, the snow-like circle beneath his feet suddenly surged upward. It transformed into a layer of thin ice, rapidly spreading up his heels. In the blink of an eye, it was about to swallow his waist.
Death induces panic, but this bone-chilling death actually calmed him down. Taking advantage of the fact that his legs still had feeling, he forcefully pulled upward, shattering the thin ice binding him.
But this annoying ice was like an endless swarm of bugs. Di Roy had barely broken free when he realized the icy current was creeping up again, already reaching his ankles.
*'An ability that uses the ground as a foundation to launch continuous attacks? In that case, I'll just stand where you can't hit me at all!'*
With this thought in mind, Di Roy leaped into the air. Rukia did not stop him. She merely looked at her airborne opponent, calmly listening to the lesson he was about to give her.
"What a pity, Shinigami! My battlefield has always been in the sky!" Di Roy laughed loudly, not just because he had successfully escaped, but also because of this Shinigami's stupidity. "Although your blade can freeze the ground, it's not suited for aerial combat."
Compared to someone like him, who was intimately familiar with slaughter, the Shinigami's fighting style was far too timid. She originally had the chance to trap him on the ground, perhaps even kill him, but due to her fear and hesitation, it had all been reduced to a joke.
Di Roy reached up and pulled off the cloth covering his head. His originally somewhat handsome face now looked terrifying due to the hollow hole where his right eye should have been. Reiatsu gathered in the empty eye socket. He was not going to give this Shinigami another chance. Dying to an Arrancar's Cero was probably an honor for her.
"Die!"
Faced with Di Roy's death sentence, Rukia appeared somewhat indifferent. A faint white light drifted upward, illuminating her face. Reflected in this light, her gaze seemed cold, yet carried a trace of pity.
"What a pity..."
*'What?'* He only had enough time to utter that single word in his mind before his world turned completely snow-white. Cold was his first sensation, and simultaneously, his last.
"Sode no Shirayuki is not just a 'blade that can freeze the ground'."
The white light dissipated, revealing a crystalline pillar of ice stretching toward the night sky, its end nowhere in sight. Inside the ice pillar, Di Roy's mouth was wide open, as if he still had arrogant words left unspoken. His solitary left eye, however, looked somewhat bewildered, holding an unknown number of questions.
"The heaven and earth enveloped by this circle..."
*Crack... crack... crack.* This fragile pillar of ice seemed unable to withstand even the sound of Rukia's voice. Fine, dark cracks spread wildly across its surface, crumbling into powder along with Di Roy, whose life had already reached its end inside.
"...are all within Sode no Shirayuki's freezing domain."
The snow-white blade slowly returned to its sheath. The snowy ribbon on the hilt, as if the sprite were going to rest, turned into specks of snow and dissipated into the air. Rukia closed her eyes. "Have you memorized it? The name of this blade?"
"Sode no Shirayuki, huh? It truly lives up to its reputation as the most beautiful Zanpakutō in Soul Society," Urahara couldn't help but sigh in admiration as he gazed at the ice pillar turning into shattered ice in the distance. He turned to look at Kōe. Although Kōe was also looking in that direction, his expression seemed somewhat desolate.
"Still hesitating?" Urahara asked, quickly following up with, "Since you didn't notify Yoruichi the moment they engaged, I thought you had already made your decision not to save that Arrancar."
"I am hesitating, but not about whether or not I should save him." Kōe sighed softly. "I'm just wondering, can the death of a companion truly be so easily forgiven and forgotten?"
"A companion? For a Hollow?" Urahara shook his head. "To Hollows, the concept of a companion shouldn't even exist."
"You're wrong, Urahara. Maintaining rationality is the key to a Gillian evolving into an Adjuchas. Every Adjuchas not only possesses rationality but also emotions. And since they have emotions, they naturally have companions."
"In that case, since they are companions, their deaths might be something they can come to terms with, but it wouldn't be that simple, would it?"
"That's exactly what I'm hesitating over. Erasing the status of an 'enemy' takes a lot of effort."
"Then why did you decide not to save him?" Urahara asked curiously. He knew Kōe's style of doing things; this man wouldn't easily make irreversible decisions, such as deciding to let someone die.
"Death holds a unique meaning in Hueco Mundo. Simply put, the evolution of a Hollow is a process of devouring and assimilation. Death simultaneously represents rebirth, just in another form."
Urahara wasn't in a hurry to demand an answer, and Kōe was equally unhurried, speaking slowly, "This isn't a simple 'survival of the fittest' selection. A large portion of Hollows are unable to break through their own limits. To them, death is also a form of witnessing—becoming a part of the other, to witness them fulfill the eternal regrets they themselves could not."
"Death, sometimes, is also a destination. A happy destination."