Goodbye, Kaien!

"Lord Hyakume!!!"

That evening, while Aoto was instructing the members of the 11th Division, Ganjuro came running over, his expression extremely grave as he said, "Lady Shiba Miyako has been killed in action!"

Aoto's brow furrowed. He immediately tossed the wooden sword in his hand to Ganjuro and took flight.

Ganjuro caught the wooden sword and took over Aoto's instruction duties without hesitation.

It really is fast; the speed of Aizen's actions...

The premonition from this morning had come true.

To inflict such misfortune upon Shiba Kaien right after he had just gotten married, Aizen is truly...

Aoto arrived at the 13th Division in the shortest time possible, but upon arrival, he only saw the anxious Kotsubaki Sentaro and Kotetsu Kiyone, as well as...

The upper half of Shiba Miyako's remains.

"Mr. Hyakume," Kotetsu Kiyone looked at Aoto as if she had seen a savior, "Vice-Captain Kaien has gone to seek revenge, and Captain Ukitake and Rukia have followed him."

"But they are still under the spiritual pressure restriction; if they go now..."

Their combat strength is not even as high as Shiba Miyako's!

To be able to defeat Shiba Miyako, whose spiritual power had reached the fifth grade, the strength of that Hollow must not be underestimated.

Shiba Kaien, caught in the throes of his emotions, could not possibly wait for the restriction to be lifted before fighting... He would absolutely be in danger.

Aoto understood. "A battle for dignity? I have never approved of such battles."

Aoto turned to Kotsubaki Sentaro. "Did Captain Ukitake assemble a subjugation squad before he left?"

For a Hollow that killed a Soul Reaper in the human world, a specialized subjugation squad should have been formed to hunt it down.

Kotsubaki Sentaro immediately understood Aoto's intent and spoke quickly, "Yes!"

"Then add my name to it. Open the Senkaimon for me immediately; I am going over there!"

"Yes!"

Kotsubaki Sentaro and Kotetsu Kiyone were the 4th and 5th seats of the 13th Division respectively, holding the same rank as Aoto, yet they were extremely obedient to him.

After all, they had witnessed Aoto's strength many times in the human world!

Therefore, they immediately went to prepare!

Left in the quiet, Aoto looked toward the remains of Shiba Miyako.

No matter how one looked at it, these were the remains of Shiba Miyako, and they had already begun to fall into a state of spiritual particle dissipation...

Souls that had not reached the third grade of spiritual power would, upon death, revert into spiritual particles to nourish the Soul Society.

Perhaps in a little while, she would naturally vanish!

But when Aoto closed his eyes, what he "saw" was not the corpse of Shiba Miyako.

It was the upper body of the female Soul Reaper who had gone into battle with him that morning.

Heh, Aizen!

"I regret not devouring the entire body of that female Soul Reaper! You brat! Hehehehehehe!"

Hearing the Hollow's reply, Shiba Kaien no longer held back any mercy.

Drawing his Zanpakuto, he severed both of the creature's arms with a single strike; Shiba Kaien was going to attack with all his might.

"Surge and swirl, Nejibana!"

Grabbing the tentacles of the Hollow that had killed his wife, Shiba Kaien immediately initiated his Shikai.

But the unique ability of this Hollow was triggered as a result.

Once every night, it could cause the Zanpakuto of any Soul Reaper who touched its tentacles to vanish.

Even Nejibana, faced with such a highly targeted ability, disappeared without a trace.

Even the enraged Shiba Kaien was taken aback.

How could it have such an ability?

But the ensuing attack left Shiba Kaien with no time to dwell on that question!

Even if he could not use his Zanpakuto, his Kido and Hakuda were unaffected.

Kaien was still capable of defeating his opponent.

Just this... this trash, how exactly did it defeat Miyako?

With a flood of memories of Miyako flashing through his mind, Shiba Kaien used Hakuda to tear off a large number of the Hollow's tentacles.

The massive loss of tentacles forced the Hollow, known as Metastacia, to retreat, and it prepared to use its final ability.

"Brat, you're not bad, then don't blame me for using this move..."

"Who told you not to take me seriously... you have only yourself to blame!"

As Metastacia finished speaking, all the tentacles on its body shattered simultaneously... and even finer, more fragmented threads coiled toward Kaien's body...

Fusion... transfer!

The Hollow pierced Shiba Kaien's skin with its tendrils, rapidly merging into his spiritual body.

It was a complete fusion; Metastacia intended to devour that portion of Shiba Kaien's soul entirely.

As Rukia tremblingly called out Shiba Kaien's name, his eyes had already transformed into those of the Hollow.

Why did something like this have to happen?

Rukia truly did not know.

Everything had been proceeding perfectly well, so why did such a sudden, drastic turn occur...

Miyako-sama had died in battle, and Kaien-sama's body had been violated by a Hollow.

Yet, she could only run away!

Even though it was Captain Ukitake who had told her to flee.

But...

After stopping, Rukia turned and ran back.

Rukia did not know why she did this.

She only felt that if she truly ran away, her heart would be lost completely as well.

When Rukia returned, she saw Captain Ukitake, his old illness flaring up, struggling to suppress his symptoms while preparing to finish off the Kaien-sama who had fully fused with the Hollow.

Because of her sudden return, Captain Ukitake's attack faltered, and the Hollow, using Kaien-sama's body, utilized a high-speed Flash Step to escape from the captain's side.

The Hollow then lunged toward Rukia... if it ate this delicious dessert first, it would have more power to escape!

As long as it hid and converted all the reishi in this body into its own, its strength would increase significantly...

However, just as Metastacia thought this, it suddenly felt its body no longer under its control!

Shiba Kaien's will was seizing control of his own body, driving it toward the blade Rukia held aloft.

He was going to kill the Hollow fused with him... even if it meant sacrificing his own life to do so.

"Sorry, Kuchiki!"

At that moment, Rukia had only raised her Zanpakuto because of Captain Ukitake's shout... she didn't even have the strength to thrust the sword forward.

She could only watch helplessly as Captain Kaien's body was about to be pierced by her own Zanpakuto...

But just then, an incredibly fast figure appeared from the side... grabbing the tip of Rukia's Zanpakuto with one hand while kicking Shiba Kaien away with the other.

"Kaien, isn't it a bit unfair to make a girl like this bear the responsibility of killing you?"

"Let me handle it instead!"

The person who arrived was, naturally, Aoto.

He released his grip on the tip of Rukia's blade, smeared the blood from it onto his own Zanpakuto, and released it: "Devour, Hungry Ghost!"

"Damn it!" Another fellow who looked like trouble the moment he appeared, but Metastacia could no longer control its body.

"Goodbye, Kaien!"

A massive mace swung down from above. In that final instant, Kaien's face returned to normal: "Thanks, Aoto!"

(￣~￣) Chomp!

A massive swallowing sound echoed out...

From that moment on, Shiba Kaien vanished from this world.