The Operation Begins / Kenpachi's Aesthetics of Violence

"Even though Hollows are everywhere here, monsters that want to devour you alive, the Hollows here are very straightforward. They eat when they're hungry and kill their own kind when they run into them. All their hostility is laid bare in front of you. There's none of the petty scheming you find in the Seireitei."

Hearing Kuruyashiki Kenpachi's words, Xuanxin felt a chord deep in his heart struck, and he nodded in agreement.

"Xuanxin, the Captain-Commander said your sword lacks a little 'killing intent.' That's because you've been protected in the Seireitei by the Shihoin Clan, the Captain-Commander, and the others. Their protection let you grow more steadily, but it also left your sword covered in a thick, pitiful layer of dust."

At that, Kuruyashiki looked at Xuanxin with burning eyes, then broke into a broad smile.

"But my 11th Division is different. You can trust every person on this expedition with your back. So here, you don't need to think about any schemes. The only thing you need to do is fight!"

"Because only when you're fighting for your life without any restraints can you wash the dust from your sword and find hope of breaking through that bottleneck!"

With that, Kuruyashiki stood up, stretched exuberantly, and headed toward his tent.

"Ah, I talked a little too much today. Get some rest early. The real hunt starts tomorrow."

Chapter 29: The Operation Begins

The next day, when everyone woke up, the same cold, desolate moon still hung in the sky.

That was right. There was no sun in Hueco Mundo. The cold, desolate moon and the white sand on the ground were Hueco Mundo's main colors.

But the expected battle did not happen. Everything was still much as it had been in Soul Society, with everyone sitting together in twos and threes, eating breakfast.

"Everyone, gather over here!"

A sudden roar like the tolling of a great bell exploded in everyone's ears. Kuruyashiki Kenpachi called everyone to the open ground at the center of the base.

He stood atop a tall rock, surveying the squad members below. After counting everyone and confirming that no one was missing, Kuruyashiki announced the reason and purpose behind the expedition.

It turned out that after a trap had been set during the last Soul Burial ceremony in the World of the Living, the Thirteenth Division had conducted a new assessment of the World of the Living.

They concluded that although the Hollow tide had been deliberately engineered, the number of Hollows in the World of the Living was also far above normal. If there were that many Hollows in the World of the Living, it likely meant that even more Hollows were appearing in Hueco Mundo.

To maintain the balance of the world, the Seireitei had organized this small-scale expedition to Hueco Mundo, with the 11th Division taking the lead.

After explaining the reason for the expedition to Hueco Mundo, Kuruyashiki began telling everyone the objective of the operation.

"So, our objective this time isn't to cut our way through Hueco Mundo. Our main purpose here is to 'mow the grass,' got it? Once we've wiped out enough Hollows, we can retreat!"

"Roar!!"

At his words, the members of the 11th Division erupted in a frenzied battle cry.

"Good, that's the spirit! Everyone, make your final preparations and arrange who's staying behind. Meet at the entrance in thirty minutes, and we'll go 'mow the grass'!!"

After announcing the heart of the mission, Kuruyashiki Kenpachi waved his hand, and everyone scattered to gather their belongings. They collected supplies from logistics, then assembled at the entrance.

Kuruyashiki then led everyone to a valley. Looking at the rocks standing around it, Xuanxin could not help thinking:

This really is a perfect place for an ambush.

Yoruichi noticed Xuanxin staring distractedly at the surrounding rocks and followed his gaze. When she saw what he was looking at, she understood. She patted him on the shoulder and said:

"All right, no need to keep looking. Kuruyashiki Kenpachi probably plans to use this place to ambush Hollows."

Hearing that, Xuanxin recalled their conversation from the previous night. He nodded and walked with the others to the open area in the center.

Noticing everyone's puzzled looks, Kuruyashiki mysteriously pulled a glass bottle wrapped in several sealing talismans from inside his clothes.

But he did not undo the seals immediately. Instead, he deliberately turned around and waved the bottle in front of Xuanxin and Yoruichi, a rugged, meaningful smile curling his lips.

At the sight of the liquid swirling with a strange dark red sheen inside the bottle, Xuanxin and Yoruichi's pupils contracted sharply. A harrowing memory flooded their minds.

"This is...!"

Xuanxin recognized it at a glance! This was definitely the drug bait the traitorous instructor planted by the Tsunayashiro Clan had used to attract a Gillian during their assessment in the World of the Living!

Seeing the disbelief in Xuanxin's eyes, Kuruyashiki Kenpachi grinned. "You're not seeing things, kid. This is the same bait you encountered in the World of the Living, but don't worry."

As Xuanxin watched nervously, Kuruyashiki casually toyed with the bottle and said, "Our technicians reverse-engineered this improved version from the few drops of the drug left at the scene."

"To make this improved version safer to use, both its range and its attraction to Menos Grande have been greatly reduced. So it'll only attract ordinary Hollows. Those Hollows are also one of the main targets of this operation."

After explaining what the drug did, Kuruyashiki Kenpachi thrust his sheathed Zanpakuto into the sand and swept an imposing gaze over everyone.

"So here's the plan. The team will be split into two groups. The vast majority will stay in this basin! After I crush the bait, you'll be responsible for clearing out the ordinary Hollows it attracts. Remember! Don't let a single one escape!"

"A smaller group will come with me to hunt a few Menos Grande to balance the numbers. Volunteer for whichever group you want, but know your own abilities. Don't throw your life away trying to play hero for a moment."

The squad members exchanged glances, then divided themselves into two groups.

Xuanxin and Yoruichi looked at each other. Both understood that Kuruyashiki Kenpachi was giving the two of them, and everyone else present, a choice concerning "self-awareness" and "comfort versus challenge."

Staying here to face a horde of ordinary Hollows meant safety, despite their great numbers, with the main force fighting in formation. It would be a one-sided slaughter with no doubt about the outcome.

Following Kuruyashiki into unknown territory, on the other hand, meant facing more savage, high-level Menos Grande. A single mistake could leave nothing of them behind.

Xuanxin and Yoruichi walked over and stood behind Kuruyashiki Kenpachi without hesitation.

Watching the two approach without hesitation, Kuruyashiki felt a little more admiration and regret.

He admired their resolve and courage, but regretted that neither of them was in his division!!

"Hahaha! Good! I like people who aren't afraid to die! But I admire those of you staying here just as much! It takes courage to face your own abilities and make the right choice, too."

"All right, one last thing! Remember that this drug only lasts a few hours, so don't hesitate once it's attracted enough Hollows. After you've finished clearing them out, you're not allowed to leave on your own, understood?!"

"Yes!!!" everyone roared in unison, their voices shaking the air.

Kenpachi then tossed the bottle to the Third Seat, who would remain behind to lead the others. After reiterating the precautions, he sped off into the distance with the elite squad.

After they had ventured several kilometers farther in, their surroundings changed dramatically. As they drew closer to Las Noches, the density of Reishi around them rose exponentially. Even breathing had become somewhat difficult for everyone.

"All right, stop. We don't need to go too far in on this expedition. This is deep enough; there's no need to go farther."

Before he had finished speaking, several bestial roars suddenly came from the distance.

Though there were only a few roars, everyone's nerves instantly went taut. They all knew those were not the roars of a beast, but of an intermediate Menos Grande that had evolved into an Adjuchas.

Only Menos Grande that reached the Adjuchas level could evolve from towering black pillars into various animal forms.

Kuruyashiki looked at the others, who were braced for a formidable enemy, and drew the Zanpakuto at his waist. Then he said to Xuanxin and Yoruichi, "Come on, I'll show you what an Adjuchas looks like too. Come on! Keep up."

"Boom!!!"

The instant his words fell, the ground beneath Kuruyashiki Kenpachi's feet exploded. He shot toward the Adjuchas's Reiatsu like a cannonball fired from a barrel!

Xuanxin and Yoruichi exchanged a glance, their eyes both kindling with fierce fighting spirit.

"Come on, keep up!"

Several streaks of black lightning followed close behind, plunging into the unknown hunting ground.

Chapter 30: Kenpachi's Aesthetics of Violence

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

With several sharp rushes of air, Xuanxin, Yoruichi, and the elite Seated Officers appeared together atop a towering stone pillar.

Standing on the rock, they stared down in stunned silence, their eyes full of shock.

"Rumble!!"

On the battlefield below, a white figure crashed into a hundred-meter stone pillar, snapping it clean in half. The figure slammed heavily into the ground, sending white dust billowing into the air along with the collapsing pillar.

At the center of the white dust lay a crocodile-like figure covered head to toe in bone spikes, letting out a wretched roar.

A flash of sword light suddenly cut through the dust. Then the usually forthright, carefree middle-aged man, Kuruyashiki Kenpachi, walked in with his Zanpakuto over his shoulder, accompanied by his familiar laughter.

But Kuruyashiki now had none of his usual amiability. An unruly, ferocious edge radiated from him inside and out.

In battle, Kuruyashiki was even more unrestrained and aggressive. Through the shihakusho torn by flying rocks, his rocklike muscles were faintly visible.

"Hahahaha! Come on, again! I know you can understand me! Isn't your Hierro supposed to be tough?! Come on!!!"

With that, Kuruyashiki let out another wild laugh and charged straight at the Adjuchas, Zanpakuto in hand.

Kuruyashiki tilted his head slightly and easily dodged the bone-spiked tail shooting toward him.

"Clang—boom!!!"

The sound of the Zanpakuto and the Adjuchas's bone spikes colliding rang out across the sky.

Xuanxin stood on a distant sand dune, his eyes fixed on the battle below. Kuruyashiki seemed to notice everyone watching, and his movements also seemed to slow deliberately, allowing them to follow the course of his fight with ease.

Kuruyashiki's fighting was worlds apart from what Xuanxin had seen from Old Man Yamamoto and Sister Hana in the First Division.

Old Man Yamamoto's sword overwhelmed everything with the absolute might of heaven; Sister Hana's sword was an art of killing that drew on every school under heaven, precise to the utmost.

Kuruyashiki Kenpachi's sword, however, was a pure aesthetic of violence.

His moves were fierce, their broad sweeps packed with tremendous power. Yet every slash in that torrential assault also contained technique.

Savage, but not blind; intricate, but without sacrificing power.

The Adjuchas was gradually driven into a corner and let out a desperate roar. He could not understand why the man before him was tormenting him when he clearly had the power to kill him easily.

Rage gradually engulfed it. It opened its enormous jaws, and the surrounding Reishi streamed wildly toward the dark red sphere in his mouth.

After charging for a moment, a Cero radiating an aura of destruction blasted toward Kuruyashiki.

"That's the move I've been waiting for!"

Facing the dying struggle of the Adjuchas before him, Kuruyashiki Kenpachi's eyes flared with an equally blazing light. Rather than dodge, he raised his Zanpakuto and slashed down at the oncoming column of red light.

"Split—apart!!!"

"Sss—!"

As everyone watched in shock, Kuruyashiki cleaved the terrifyingly powerful Cero straight down the middle. Then, beneath the Adjuchas's relieved gaze, the two beams fell to either side.

A crocodile-shaped head tumbled to Kuruyashiki's feet. It slowly turned into Reishi and returned to the cycle.

Kuruyashiki looked at the corpse beginning to break down into Reishi, then slowly turned around. Casually flicking the blood from his blade, he said to the stunned onlookers:

"Did you all see that clearly? Today, we'll make this blind fool of an Adjuchas the appetizer for our operation!"

"Everyone, move! Next target!"

With that, Kuruyashiki paid no mind to whether the others had recovered. Carrying a lingering scent of blood, he was the first to race toward the next location.

"Yes!!!"

Xuanxin and the others on the rock then erupted in a frenzied roar as one.

At that moment, no words could have rallied everyone more than the battle they had just witnessed, filled with its aesthetic of violence. Inspired by Kuruyashiki Kenpachi's exuberance, the entire assault squad's fighting spirit instantly reached its peak!

Even Xuanxin and Yoruichi were caught up in the atmosphere.

Xuanxin felt that the barrier within him, which had been preventing his breakthrough, had actually begun to loosen ever so slightly under the stimulus of that intense fighting spirit.

Now he could hardly wait to draw his twin blades and find a sufficiently powerful opponent of his own, to test the bit of "technique" he had just grasped.

With their fighting spirit nearly ablaze, everyone quickly closed in on Kuruyashiki.

"Clang!"

As soon as they landed, Xuanxin and Yoruichi promptly readied themselves for battle, while several Seated Officers of the 11th Division moved into formation with practiced coordination.

At that moment, everyone was ready for an earth-shaking, bloody battle.