Isshin Shiba felt as though he had had a very distant dream.
In the dream, he encountered that strange-looking Vasto Lorde Arrancar again, except its body had been magnified countless times over.
Though its strength had not changed much, it was still not an opponent he could defeat easily.
Drawing on his previous experience fighting it, Isshin Shiba immediately unleashed his Bankai, boosting his spiritual pressure by more than tenfold as he confronted it head-on.
Then, for some reason, that silver-haired girl appeared in the dream as well. She joined forces with him to resist the Vasto Lorde Arrancar's overwhelming power.
With the two of them working together, they fought for who knew how long before finally cleaving it in half with a Getsuga Tenshō, causing it to vanish completely into the profound darkness of the dream.
The next moment, two pairs of eyes opened at once, staring up at the white ceiling and glaring incandescent lights.
Until an unfamiliar yet somewhat familiar face suddenly entered both their fields of vision.
"You're awake. The surgery was a success."
A crooked merchant's smile appeared on his face. "You're a girl now!"
Isshin Shiba's expression changed drastically. He instinctively reached for his vital area, only to realize in horror that all four of his limbs were restrained on the operating table.
His entire body was weak. His spiritual pressure had been exhausted, and an unprecedented sense of frailty filled him.
"Who exactly are you?!"
"Damn it, you actually dared do something so vile to this captain without permission."
Isshin Shiba helplessly closed his eyes, two streams of hot tears sliding down from their corners.
He might not bear the burden of revitalizing the Shiba Family, but they could not just do something like this to him!
Was this punishment from the Soul