The female Punishment Force officer stared at Aoto's Zanpakuto as he suddenly raised it. Alarm bells blared in her mind, but she had no time to do anything.
Aoto casually swung his sword upward. The next instant, she felt a sharp pain.
She looked toward the source of the pain, her right shoulder... and saw that her right arm had been severed.
"Hadō #54: Waste Flame!"
A disk-shaped flame shot out and struck her entire right arm, burning it to ashes in an instant!
"I hope the money you earned this time will be enough to support you in your old age..."
The female Punishment Force officer, whose spiritual pressure had plummeted, was just about to scream when Aoto "set her free."
He didn't want to hear that woman's voice anymore!
Turning back to pick up the two wolf legs, Aoto put one away and immediately began gnawing on the other.
"Mm, this taste... it's an Adjuchas modified by Szayelaporro! They must be the remnants of his forces after his defeat. I wonder where they've been hiding! The original body couldn't find them, but the nobles did."
"But this time, the original body should be able to find them!"
"Delicious! This was prepared far better than anything I could manage! One Adjuchas leg is enough to make me feel full."
"If Szayelaporro had become a chef, he might've been even more famous than he was as a scientist!"
Only after he had completely digested the wolf leg and his Reiatsu had fully recovered did Aoto finally release Shakukuro's effect.
By now, quite a few Soul Reapers had gathered outside the pitch-black battlefield as reinforcements.
Zaraki Kenpachi wasn't there. It wasn't that he hadn't shown up; he'd left after realizing the fight was already over.
"Just another bunch of useless Hollows..." That was what he'd said.
Ikkaku and Yumichika had managed to bag ten Gillians, so they were quite satisfied.
Shiro, on the other hand, had arrived late and was now full of resentment.
He'd wanted to show his master how much he'd improved over the past two months!
But the first person Aoto faced when he emerged wasn't any of them.
It was Soi Fon, the Second Division Captain.
The Stealth Force was on the same level as the Gotei 13, and she was its current commander-in-chief.
The Stealth Force was divided into five divisions. The First Division was the Punishment Force, directly under Soi Fon's command.
That female officer belonged to it.
That made her one of Soi Fon's direct subordinates.
But now, standing before Soi Fon, Aoto showed no sign of fear.
And Soi Fon hadn't come to settle a score.
"I owe you a favor!"
After saying this softly, Soi Fon left.
Aoto gave an almost imperceptible nod, then descended from the air.
A subordinate in the Punishment Force had been bribed by a noble to do private work in Hueco Mundo. That could have seriously damaged Soi Fon's reputation.
Aoto had used Shakukuro to conceal everything. After teaching the female officer a lesson, he'd stripped off her Punishment Force uniform and dumped her in South District 21, on the opposite side of the area, where other Punishment Force members found her first. That had protected both the force's reputation and her own.
Naturally, Soi Fon had to come thank him in person.
The Stealth Force's Third Division, the Correction Corps, also monitored all of Soul Society.
Before Urahara Kisuke became captain of the Twelfth Division, he'd been the captain of that division.
So some of the technology the Twelfth Division now used to monitor all of Soul Society had been brought over from the Stealth Force by him.
Earlier, when the female officer's Reiatsu vanished from Soul Society, the Correction Corps had detected it immediately.
The Stealth Force had mobilized in full, and soon the noble she'd been dealing with was found as well.
Afterward, the Punishment Force had stationed guards at several locations suitable for opening a Garganta, ready to arrest her when she returned.
They hadn't expected her to be so bold as to open a Garganta in a busy district and draw back so many Menos Grande.
Even Soi Fon thought cutting off one arm was too lenient.
Although she'd known the woman for a long time, that only made her betrayal harder to tolerate.
Soi Fon's family had all died on Stealth Force missions, so she had absolutely no tolerance for anything that could damage the force's reputation.
"Sit upon the frosted heavens, Hyōrinmaru!"
When Shiro completed his Shikai, a chain emerged from the end of his sword, with a crescent-shaped blade at its far end.
A gigantic Ice Dragon appeared beside him.
If he simply controlled the Ice Dragon to attack, Hyōrinmaru could be classified as a direct-attack type Zanpakuto.
But Hyōrinmaru had other abilities as well.
Its most basic ability was called "Heavenly Weather Manifestation." It was Hyōrinmaru's most fundamental, yet also most powerful, ability.
It allowed him to control the moisture in the atmosphere.
Although Shiro still wasn't very good at controlling this technique, it let him greatly reduce the Reiatsu consumed by his other techniques.
Aoto thought it was impressive.
At Shiro's insistence, the master and disciple decided to have a match.
Aoto said he wouldn't use Shikai and told Shiro to attack however he liked.
The indignant Shiro immediately brought out his full strength.
But in Aoto's eyes, the Ice Dragon was full of openings!
So once again, without using his Zanpakuto, he passed through the Ice Dragon's defenses and appeared in front of Shiro, striking him in the stomach.
But at the instant he landed the blow, an Ice Mirror shattered...
The real Shiro appeared farther away.
Shiro had been prepared for his master to knock him down again.
After studying all sorts of material, he'd come up with this technique, "Ice Mirror."
By refracting light through multiple layers of ice mirrors, it made an enemy facing him think he was still in the same place.
Although Shiro had retreated, the Ice Dragon remained where it was.
If Shiro had been knocked down, the Ice Dragon would naturally have vanished.
But since he hadn't, the dragon became a threat to Aoto.
The Ice Dragon coiled around him layer by layer. Aoto was now in danger of being frozen solid.
Watching the battle between master and disciple, Rangiku Matsumoto stared wide-eyed... Could Aoto really be about to lose?
She was astonished that Shiro had reached this level in just two short months, but even more astonished that Aoto might lose!
How could he get out of this without using Shikai?
But Ikkaku and Yumichika, watching the match alongside her, saw a completely different scene.
Crack! The Ice Dragon curled up completely, forming a huge sphere of ice.
Through the transparent ice, they could see Aoto, frozen solid inside.
Had Shiro won?
Shiro could hardly believe it himself.
Then an arm settled across his shoulder.
"Hard to believe, huh? That's the point!" Aoto's voice sounded beside Shiro's ear. "If even you don't believe it, how could I possibly be trapped in there?"
The moment Shiro heard his voice, he tried to act.
But it was too late.
Bakudō #4: Hainawa!
A rope made of Reishi instantly bound Shiro.
And it was tied awfully tight!