Everyone Has the Right to Step Forward

"I agree."

Facing Sasakibe's kneeling plea, Ross smiled faintly and nodded with extreme casualness.

Under the astonished gazes of everyone present, he spoke these words of pardon in the calmest possible tone—words enough to shock them all.

He... agreed just like that?!

Hearing that weightless promise, every surviving Shinigami present stood dumbfounded, staring at Ross in the sky in utter disbelief.

They felt that the world had to have gone mad.

Ross had just killed Byakuya Kuchiki and the others with such ruthless decisiveness.

He possessed the power to destroy everything in an instant, yet why had he agreed so readily to such an unreasonable request, one that could even be said to harbor the seeds of revenge?

Was he not afraid that these people would rise again in the future?

Among everyone present, only Aizen, who had hovered silently beside Ross like a shadow all along, watched everything with a knowing smile.

Of everyone there, perhaps only Aizen could completely understand Ross's thoughts at that moment.

Because Aizen knew very well.

From the very beginning, Ross had descended upon Soul Society merely to enjoy an entertaining drama and pass the time. Nothing more.

As for how that drama ended, who lived and who died, whether Soul Society survived or perished—

Ross did not care about such trivial matters at all.

He had long since handed the power of choice entirely to all living beings, allowing them to decide for themselves.

He would never deign to deliberately guide them or forcibly determine an ending.

Did they wish to die gloriously for honor, like Byakuya Kuchiki?

Fine. Ross would grant them a death hymn.

Did they wish to cast aside their dignity like Chōjirō Sasakibe and endure humiliation so that a trace of Soul Society's bloodline could continue?

Fine. Ross would