Outside Deep Prison No. 4 of the Palace of Penitence.
Kuchiki Rukia and Hanatarou slumped on the ground, staring in horror at Aizen, who held the Hogyoku.
They had not been frightened senseless. Rather...
They could not move!
The spiritual pressure unconsciously radiating from Aizen made the two beside him feel utterly powerless. Forget moving—they could not even make a sound!
A monster~~!
The sudden turn of events left Kuchiki Rukia completely unable to understand what had happened, much less what Captain Aizen had taken from inside her...
But there was one thing she could confirm!
That was...
The man before her was not the kind, gentle Captain Aizen from her memories.
"Curious what this is?"
Aizen suddenly chuckled, as though he had seen through Rukia's thoughts. "After clearing up your confusion, I'll send you to your deaths. For people like you, that should lessen the unwillingness you feel before dying." As he spoke, Aizen turned his gaze toward the area beneath the suspension bridge.
"Conveniently, the people coming to save you have arrived too."
The people coming to save me?
Kuchiki Rukia froze at his words. Before she could understand what Aizen meant, a captain-level spiritual pressure surged forth without warning.
The pressure felt incomparably familiar to Kuchiki Rukia, but that familiarity only made the disbelief on her face deepen.
How could this be!?
Whoosh~~
Amid the sound of something breaking through the air, a figure shot out from the abyss beneath the suspension bridge and landed on it.
"I... Ichigo?"
Kuchiki Rukia asked uncertainly.
It was not that she failed to recognize Ichigo Kurosaki. Rather, the spiritual pressure radiating from him was completely different from the one in her memories, as though he had become an entirely different person.
After Ichigo Kurosaki came to a stop, he did