After the captains' eting ended, Ichigo seed to completely lose his mind, his actions escalating further and further.
First, his own districts fell entirely. Then the rest of Rukongai suffered disaster as well.
No one knew where he got the technology from, but so kind of virus capable of Hollowfying souls began spreading wildly throughout the Rukongai.
The twilight over Rukongai was swallowed by a strange purple-black mist.
It wasn't a natural phenonon, but an ominous sign of highly concentrated mutated spirit particles fernting in the air.
At first, it only appeared in scattered districts. A soul drawing water suddenly froze inside the mist. Before the dull thud of the dropped bucket could even spread, his own hands had already begun tearing apart his face uncontrollably.
Amid a shrill scream, a pale bone mask burst from his flesh like a parasite forcing its way out, rapidly covering his features.
That was only the beginning.
The virus capable of inducing Hollowfication continued spreading from district to district. First ca the Eighth Division territory under Shihoin Yoruichi, followed closely by the other divisions' territories.
Countless newborn Hollows roared into existence, while panic spread like a plague, ripping apart Soul Society's already fragile balance overnight.
———
[Tenth Division, Captains' Conference Room]
The massive eting table felt empty and deathly silent.
Rosse sat at the head seat with one hand propping up the side of his face, his gaze sweeping over the incomplete lineup below.
Zaraki Kenpachi's seat was empty.
Kurotsuchi Mayuri's seat was empty.
Shihoin Yoruichi's seat was empty.
Ichigo's seat was still empty.
Four captains had chosen not to attend this ergency captains' eting.
But their absence would not halt the proceedings.
After causing an incident this severe, there was no way Ichigo could escape punishnt.
The execution order for Ichigo passed with nearly unanimous approval.
"In the na of the Head Captain of the Gotei Thirteen, I hereby strip Ichigo of his position as Captain of the Thirteenth Division and issue an order for his capture."
The corners of Rosse's mouth curved upward slightly before he continued, "Captain Komamura, you will lead Captain Kuchiki and Captain Tosen in the apprehension of Ichigo."
"Yes!"
Komamura Sajin rose to his feet imdiately, unable to hide his excitent.
He had waited a long ti for this mont.
————
Late that night after the eting ended, a rare rainstorm descended upon Soul Society.
Cold rainwater drumd endlessly against the roof tiles of the Seireitei, as though trying to wash away the scent of blood lingering in the air.
Inside the Tenth Division conference hall, after all the captains had departed, only two people remained.
Rosse walked beneath the wide eaves with his hands behind his back, gazing out at the blurry Seireitei hidden within the curtain of rain. The indifferent smile on his lips gradually beca amused.
"How was that move?"
Aizen Sosuke slowly erged from the shadows one step behind him.
His gaze joined Rosse's as they looked out into the endless rainy night, his voice warm and gentle.
"Very clever. I still underestimated things. In the end, I dragged Ichigo down with ," Aizen praised him softly, his tone carrying a trace of regret for the orange-haired boy.
"I overestimated the opponents we would face, and I overestimated the limits of human nature."
"Ichigo didn't actually do anything wrong."
Rosse extended a hand and caught a drop of icy rainwater, watching it shatter in his palm.
"He intended to use the panic caused by localized Hollowfication to stir Soul Society's disgust toward Hollows as quickly as possible, forcing the masses to oppose as the Hollow King."
"It was a good strategy."
Rosse chuckled softly as his fingers suddenly clenched shut, crushing the droplet in his hand.
"But now, he's beco the demon despised by everyone."
"Everyone represents different interests. Since Ichigo beca the one to start this, naturally the others wouldn't sit still and wait."
Aizen shook his head lightly, a glint of intelligence flashing behind his glasses.
From the very beginning, the mont Ichigo tried using thods like this right under Rosse's nose, the ending had already been decided.
The only thing Aizen hadn't known was how Rosse would turn the situation around against him.
The reason Aizen had encouraged Ichigo to do it in the first place was simply to go along with the flow and help complete Rosse's social experint.
"Still…", Aizen turned his head toward the man beside him who resembled a god, rare confusion surfacing in his eyes.
"I don't understand who did it. Aside from Ichigo, a man from the World of the Living who has already lost everything, who would go this far? More than thirty Rukongai districts destroyed in a single night… tens of millions of souls wiped out…"
Because every Rukongai district had Shinigami stationed there, those artificially created fodder Hollows were actually dealt with very quickly.
What truly caused panic wasn't the fighting.
It was the deaths of tens of millions of souls.
This was practically forcing Ichigo into a dead end.
"Kurotsuchi Mayuri did it," Smiling faintly, Rosse spoke the na.
Aizen was briefly stunned before letting out a quiet laugh.
"That does sound like his style. The entire Soul Society only has one person capable of creating Hollowfication-spread technology that efficient. But what was his goal? That mad scientist may lack morals, but he doesn't commit pointless massacres."
"Because Soul Society's spirit particle cycle has collapsed."
Rosse's voice was calm enough to send chills down one's spine.
"From the mont Hueco Mundo separated from the Three Worlds, the balance of the world had already been broken. If tens of millions of souls weren't sacrificed to stabilize the spirit particle density, Soul Society wouldn't survive even a month."
"So that was my oversight," Aizen nodded thoughtfully. Even soone as intelligent as him had overlooked that point without equal information.
Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the World of the Living originally ford a stable triangular structure.
Now one side had completely collapsed. The World of the Living, founded on kishi rather than reishi, remained naturally stable. That ant the Soul Society side would beco unstable, forcing it to implent so form of self-preservation.
"So this involved Senior Hikifune as well?"
Aizen quickly realized that technology on this level couldn't possibly bypass the forr Zero Division mber currently within the Twelfth Division.
"Then she was the one who invented this airborne Hollowfication virus," Rosse tilted his head slightly, "When it cos to technical work involving soul modification, she's even more of a genius than Kurotsuchi Mayuri. Do you really think she wasn't involved?"
"Tsk! Tsk! How ironic."
Aizen narrowed his eyes, watching the Shinigami in the rainy night desperately running around in the na of justice, his smile turning aningful.
"If it's all for the sake of saving the world, then why not do it openly?"
"Because even if it passed the captains' eting, captains like Komamura and the others would never agree to sacrificing tens of millions of people just to keep surviving a little longer."
Rosse turned around and leaned against the corridor pillar, a smile of complete understanding hanging on his face.
"And Kurotsuchi Mayuri hates endless moral debates more than anything. Since Ichigo had already started things, it was easier to simply dump all the bla onto that reckless fool."
Once Ichigo had done the first part, naturally soone even crueler would finish the second.
It was a perfect deadlock.
Rosse hadn't ordered Mayuri to do it. That man without morals simply disliked thinking about political structures and power struggles, but that didn't an he was stupid.
He had rely chosen to go with the flow at the appropriate mont.
"Now that Ichigo has fled, I wonder what fate awaits the rest of the Thirteenth Division."
Rosse sighed softly, as though watching a play nearing its final curtain.
"This is rely the chaos you wanted all along."
Aizen adjusted his collar, his voice returning to calmness.
Long before the captains' eting began, he had privately sought out Ichigo.
("Ichigo, soone is using your hands to destroy Soul Society. If you stay here, you'll only beco a scapegoat and end up imprisoned. Leave. Go find the true mastermind.")
That had been Aizen's advice.
And Ichigo believed him.
To avoid implicating his companions and to uncover the truth, Ichigo chose to flee the Seireitei before the captains' eting began.
But what he didn't know was that this was exactly what both Aizen and Rosse wanted to see.
Only by letting him escape could they expand the chaos to its absolute limit.
———
On the road leading to the Thirteenth Division, Komamura Sajin walked at the front.
His enormous body seed especially tense today. With every step he took, the puddles beneath his feet exploded apart from the force of his spiritual pressure.
Behind him, Sixth Division Captain Kuchiki Byakuya walked expressionlessly, the Kenseikan on his head gleaming coldly beneath the rain.
Ninth Division Captain Tosen Kana walked beside Byakuya, advancing forward with casual indifference.
BOOM!
The heavy redwood gates of the Thirteenth Division weren't pushed open.
Komamura Sajin smashed them directly into splinters with a single punch wrapped in terrifying spiritual pressure.
Before the dust even settled, his towering figure had already stepped into the division courtyard, his furious roar exploding like thunder.
"Ichigo! Get out here and surrender!"
The shout made the roof tiles tremble and instantly alerted the people inside the barracks.
Yet the orange-haired figure never appeared.
Only Rukia erged from around the corridor corner with a group behind her, all of them staring at one another in confusion.
The mont she saw the three captains radiating killing intent at the entrance, along with the dense ranks of Seventh and Ninth Division mbers behind them, her pupils contracted instantly.
"Captain Komamura? Brother?"
Rukia's voice trembled slightly. She instinctively tried to bow, but the nearly tangible killing intent pouring off Komamura forced her back a step.
"What happened? Why are you here?"
She genuinely had no idea what had happened.
Or rather, she had only been released by Ichigo today.
Ever since the day Ichigo spoke with Captain Aizen, he had suddenly locked her up without explanation.
Only recently had she finally been allowed out, and even now she still didn't know what Ichigo had done.
"Where is that criminal?"
Komamura strode closer, his massive shadow completely swallowing Rukia as fury burned in his beast-like eyes.
"Answer ! Where is Ichigo, the man who spread the Hollowfication virus and caused the deaths of tens of millions of souls?"
"Virus? Tens of millions dead?"
Rukia's face turned deathly pale. She looked toward the silent Kuchiki Byakuya beside her in disbelief, and when she saw him give a slight nod, the hope in her heart died completely.
"No! Ichigo isn't here. I don't even know where he went! And he would never do sothing like that. There has to be so mistake! Ever since he spoke with Captain Aizen last ti, he's been acting like a completely different person!"
"Aizen?"
Byakuya frowned slightly, ntally noting the na while discreetly glancing at Tosen Kana beside him.
He might only be maintaining stability because he had no other choice, but that didn't an he was unaware of what Aizen and Tosen had done in the past.
"Ichigo is indeed not here."
Tosen tilted his head slightly as the detection spiritual pressure covering the entire division retracted, his expression completely normal.
"Hmph! Looks like he fled in fear of punishnt. Just as I thought, it really was him."
Komamura clenched his fists tightly and took a deep breath before pointing toward the panicked Thirteenth Division mbers who had gathered after hearing the commotion.
"Although the main culprit has escaped, under the Head Captain's orders and according to prior precedent, all personnel, hear my command! Seal off the Thirteenth Division! This place is now a rebel nest. Anyone who dares resist will be executed on the spot!"
"This is the Thirteenth Division! What right do you have to seal us off?"
A furious shout suddenly rang out.
A seated officer from the Thirteenth Division, eyes bloodshot, drew his Zanpakuto and stood before the Seventh Division mbers trying to force their way in.
"Even if the captain isn't here, this still isn't a place for you people to run wild! Get out!"
That roar was like the final spark tossed into a powder keg.
Clang!
Chaos exploded instantly.
The impulsive Seventh Division mber, blocked from advancing, lashed out in humiliation and anger. Shoving instantly escalated into open combat.
Within the narrow courtyard, spiritual pressures collided while flashes of blades lit the rain.
Pshht!
The sound of blood spraying was especially harsh amidst the rainstorm.
Driven by extre fury, the Thirteenth Division officer slashed open a Seventh Division mber's shoulder. Warm blood erupted outward, splattering directly onto the spotless white hem of Komamura Sajin's captain haori nearby.
At that mont, the world seed to freeze.
Komamura slowly lowered his head, staring at the glaring crimson stain spreading beneath the rainwater.
That was his subordinate's blood.
Blood spilled while carrying out justice.
His breathing grew heavy, two streams of scorching white breath bursting from his nostrils. The faint trace of reason that had remained in his eyes vanished completely beneath overwhelming rage.
"Are you trying to rebel?"
Without any warning—
BANG!!
No one even saw how he moved.
The Thirteenth Division officer who had just been shouting suddenly felt the world spin violently before a massive hand like an iron vise clamped over his face.
Terrifying force and overwhelming pressure slamd his skull brutally into the stone pavent below.
The sickening crack of shattering bones made teeth ache. Stone slabs exploded apart. The officer didn't even have ti to scream before his body was smashed into the rubble like a broken doll, blood exploding across the ground in a radial spray.
"STOP IT!!"
Rukia's shrill scream tore through the rain as she tried to rush forward, only to find her shoulder firmly restrained by her own older brother.
And this was only the beginning.
Komamura Sajin did not stop.
Slowly straightening up, he swept his gaze across the Thirteenth Division mbers frozen in fear around him. The spiritual pressure erupting from his body distorted even the surrounding air.
"If you chose to shelter him, then you should've prepared yourselves for the consequences."
He suddenly lifted his leg and kicked another squad mber who was trying to draw his sword.
Accompanied by the horrifying crunch of collapsing ribs, the man shot backward like a cannonball, smashing straight through the wall of the division barracks before disappearing into the wreckage, his fate unknown.
"Those who resist have only one path... DEATH!"
Komamura's figure left afterimages throughout the rainstorm. Every punch and every impact ca with the sounds of snapping bones and agonized screams.
He was no longer the gentle captain he once was.
He had beco a rampaging beast enforcing order through violence.
Faced with Komamura Sajin's slaughter, a small number of division mbers were intimidated into submission.
But the majority still chose resistance.
They hadn't beco Shinigami just to kneel down and wait for death.
Even under the pressure of Komamura Sajin and the other two captains, the Thirteenth Division charged forward.
Komamura Sajin and Tosen Kana stopped holding back as well.
Inside the Thirteenth Division courtyard, blood flowed like a river.
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