"Lord Hyakume!!!"
That evening, while Aoto was teaching the 11th Division members, Ganjuro ran over, his expression grave. "Lady Shiba Miyako has fallen!"
Aoto frowned, immediately tossed the wooden sword in his hand to Ganjuro, and took off into the air.
Ganjuro caught the wooden sword and took over Aoto's teaching duties.
That was fast... Aizen's actions, I mean.
His feeling from that morning had come true.
To inflict such a tragedy on Kaien right after his wedding... Aizen really was...
Aoto reached the 13th Division in the shortest time possible. There, he saw only the anxious Kotsubaki Sentaro and Kotetsu Kiyone, along with...
The upper half of Shiba Miyako's body.
"Mr. Hyakume," Kotetsu Kiyone said, looking at Aoto as if he were her savior. "Lieutenant Kaien is going to get revenge. Captain Ukitake and Rukia went after him."
"But they still have their spiritual power restricted. If they go now..."
Their combat strength would be lower than Shiba Miyako's!
A Hollow capable of defeating Shiba Miyako, whose spiritual pressure had reached the fifth rank, was not to be underestimated.
Caught up in his emotions, Shiba Kaien would never wait for the restriction to be lifted before fighting... He was sure to be in danger.
Aoto understood. "A battle for honor, huh? I've never agreed with that kind of battle."
Aoto turned to Kotsubaki Sentaro. "Did Captain Ukitake assemble a team to hunt it down before he left?"
A Hollow that had killed a Soul Reaper in the World of the Living would warrant a special team to track it down.
Kotsubaki Sentaro immediately understood what Aoto meant and answered quickly. "Yes!"
"Then add my name to the team. Open a Senkaimon for me right now. I'm going over!"
"Yes!"
Kotsubaki Sentaro and Kotetsu Kiyone were the 13th Division's Fourth and Fifth Seats. Their ranks were technically equal to Aoto's, yet they followed his orders without hesitation.
After all, they had witnessed Aoto's strength firsthand many times!
So they immediately went to make the arrangements!
Aoto calmly turned to look at Shiba Miyako's body.
No matter how he looked at her, it was Shiba Miyako's body, and it had already begun to disintegrate into Reishi...
When souls with spiritual pressure below the third rank died, they returned to Reishi and nourished the Soul Society.
Perhaps she would naturally disappear before long!
But when Aoto closed his eyes, what he "saw" wasn't Shiba Miyako's body.
It was the upper half of the female Soul Reaper who had gone into battle with her that morning.
Heh, Aizen!
"I regret not eating that female Soul Reaper's whole body! Hehehehehe!"
Hearing the Hollow's answer, Shiba Kaien showed no more mercy.
He drew his Zanpakuto and cut off both of its arms in a single slash. He was going all out!
"Let the waters rage, Nejibana!"
Grabbing the tentacle of the Hollow that had killed his wife, Shiba Kaien immediately released his Shikai.
But this also activated the Hollow's unique ability.
Once each night, it could make the Zanpakuto of any Soul Reaper who touched its tentacles disappear.
Even Nejibana vanished in the face of an ability so perfectly suited to counter it.
Even the enraged Shiba Kaien was taken aback.
How could it have an ability like that?
But the attack that followed left Shiba Kaien no time to dwell on the question!
Even without his Zanpakuto, Kidō and Hakuda were unaffected.
Kaien could still defeat his opponent.
How could a piece of... a piece of trash like this have defeated Miyako?
Images of Miyako flashed through his mind. With Hakuda, Shiba Kaien tore off several of the Hollow's tentacles by sheer force.
The loss of so many tentacles forced the Hollow, named Metastacia, to retreat. Then it prepared to use its final ability.
"You're pretty good, kid. Don't blame me for using this move..."
"You brought this on yourself by underestimating me!"
As soon as Metastacia finished speaking, all the feelers on its body shattered... More, finer threads wound around Kaien...
Fusion... transfer!
As the threads pierced Kaien's skin, the Hollow rapidly fused with Shiba Kaien's spiritual body.
Metastacia intended to completely devour the part of Shiba Kaien's spiritual body that it had fused with.
When Rukia called Shiba Kaien's name in a trembling voice, his eyes had already taken on the Hollow's appearance.
Why had this happened?
Rukia truly didn't know.
Everything had been going well. Why had things suddenly taken such a drastic turn...?
Lady Miyako had fallen, and a Hollow had invaded Lord Kaien's body.
And all she could do was run away!
Even if Captain Ukitake had told her to run.
But...
After stopping, Rukia turned and ran back.
She didn't know why she had done it.
She only felt that if she really ran away, she would lose every last part of herself.
When Rukia returned, she saw Captain Ukitake, whose illness had flared up again, struggling to suppress it as he prepared to kill Lord Kaien, who had completely fused with the Hollow.
Her sudden return caused a flaw in Captain Ukitake's attack. The Hollow used Lord Kaien's body to perform a superfast Flash Step and escape from Captain Ukitake.
The Hollow charged toward Rukia too... It would eat the delicious little treat first, gaining more strength to escape!
If it could hide and replace all the Reishi in this body with its own, its strength would increase dramatically...
But just as Metastacia thought this, it suddenly felt its body slip from its control!
Shiba Kaien's will was taking control of his own body, making it charge at the blade Rukia had raised.
He was going to kill the Hollow fused with him... even if it cost him his life.
I'm sorry, Kuchiki!
At that moment, Rukia had only raised her Zanpakuto in response to Captain Ukitake's shout... She didn't even have the strength to thrust it forward.
All she could do was watch helplessly as Captain Kaien's body was about to be pierced by her Zanpakuto...
But just then, a figure flashed in from the side... One hand caught the tip of Rukia's Zanpakuto while a kick sent Shiba Kaien flying.
"Kaien, isn't it a little unfair to make a girl like her bear the responsibility for killing you?"
"Let me do it instead!"
The newcomer was none other than Aoto.
Releasing Rukia's blade tip, he smeared the blood on his palm across his Zanpakuto and released it. "Devour, Hungry Ghost!"
"Damn it!" Another guy who looked like trouble at a glance had shown up, but Metastacia could no longer control its body.
"Goodbye, Kaien!"
The enormous spiked club came crashing down. In that final instant, Kaien's face returned. "Thanks, Aoto!"
Chomp!
A loud gulp rang out...
Shiba Kaien disappeared from this world forever.