Gillian

"Damn it, where did these beasts come from?!"

"What good does it do to ask? Pick up the pace—the big idiot's almost caught up!"

In a dense forest, two men stood back to back, shielding a woman with long, pale-purple hair between them. They were Kamisawa Shirutama and Yamagata Jinnai, whom Hongjiang had met when he first entered Zaraki District.

The three of them were surrounded by more than twenty Hollows, and more kept appearing from who knew where and joining the fight. Kamisawa and Yamagata were doing their best to fight them off, but could barely hold their ground. Breaking through the encirclement would be extremely difficult.

As he watched the Hollow horde continue to grow, despair stirred in Kamisawa's heart. He didn't want to admit it, but it looked like he was going to die here today. And it wouldn't just be him. Yamagata and the woman behind them, who was already scared out of her wits, wouldn't escape either.

"Watch out!"

Yamagata's shout snapped Kamisawa out of his brief daze. He flicked his wrist, and the chain in his hand crossed itself in midair, trapping the four-fingered claw before his chest. He turned and threw the Hollow over his shoulder toward Yamagata.

Without a word, Yamagata swung the greatsword in his hands. It was his Zanpakuto, Katsujo, a two-handed sword with a grip in the middle and two half-meter-wide, single-edged blades.

Cold flashes filled the dim forest. Katsujo's two blades alternated as they sliced through the bodies of two Hollows, chopping them into eight pieces. The surrounding Hollows only howled and jeered; none dared approach Yamagata. Those that did met the same fate as the two unlucky ones.

"Hey, Kamisawa, did you just get scared stiff? Having wet pants isn't much fun!" Yamagata didn't press forward. After dealing with the trouble around him, he fell back.

"Yeah, I was scared. I might've died just now if you hadn't been there." Kamisawa tried to lighten the mood, but his face had already stiffened so much that he couldn't manage an expression.

"We can't die!" Yamagata grinned. Two familiar faces flashed through his mind, and his gaze suddenly softened. "Otherwise, how could we face those two?"

Life on the Plain of Slaughter was dangerous and monotonous. For Kamisawa and Yamagata, the only change in recent years had been the arrival of a new little darling from the 4th Division. Their squad had been selected to keep the darling safe.

To the two of them, it hardly counted as a change. Compared with Diezuka Hiroe seven years ago, this newcomer failed to interest them in the slightest. Just another useless 4th Division member, even more useless than the last one.

Kamisawa had thought life would carry on this way until his term ended in three years and he returned to Seireitei. But he hadn't expected a spatial rift to appear out of nowhere, bringing change in an instant.

It was a Negacion opened by a Hollow. They'd meant to lie in wait and give their opponents a nasty surprise, but in the end, they were the ones who got a shock!

In the blink of an eye, two of the five were gone, leaving only the three of them. Kamisawa would never forget that enormous black maw, like an abyss, or those ghastly white hands.

"Forget about me! Run! You have to survive!!!"

Those were the last words Kamisawa had heard from the unlucky man who'd been snatched up and was about to be fed into that gaping maw. They were also what brought the three of them to their senses, making them stop their futile attempts to fight back.

Their escape had gone fairly smoothly at first, until the Hollows that had appeared from nowhere blocked their path. With no other choice, Kamisawa had reluctantly sent out a distress signal. But now, it seemed they wouldn't last long enough for help to arrive.

What he didn't know was that help was already close. It wasn't Hongjiang, but a four-man squad led by Tsukikage Shunyi, the 5th Division's Fifth Seat whom Hongjiang had taught a lesson seven years ago.

"Twenty? No, at least thirty!"

"There are casualties. Only three of them are left, so there must've been more before."

"Something's wrong. An invasion on this scale is unusual." Tsukikage looked at the three people trapped in the distance, overcome by an inexplicable sense of foreboding. "Help them break through, then get them out of here. Don't get bogged down fighting!"

Tsukikage might have had a grudge against Hongjiang, but it had to be said that anyone who'd earned the Fifth Seat was no empty title. His judgment now was undoubtedly spot-on. Even Kamisawa, who couldn't stand him, would have given him a thumbs-up.

If everything went smoothly, the three of them would almost certainly escape. But fate's mocking laughter rang out at that very moment, rising from the north and echoing through the forest like an invisible brand that wouldn't fade.

The whimpering sound, half-mocking and half-anguished, caught Tsukikage's attention. The moment he saw what made it, his face went deathly pale. He spread his arms and stopped in his tracks. But he didn't need to hold his teammates back; they'd all stopped instinctively, too.

A massive black figure, nearly a hundred meters tall, looked like a giant wearing a black cloak. A long-nosed white mask covered its face, making the source of the sound look like a comical clown. But Tsukikage and his team had no desire to laugh. For one of those beasts to appear here was a disaster!

Gillian—that was the name of the enormous creature before them. The huge circular hole in its chest revealed that, at its core, it was also a Hollow.

Hollows had different levels. Broadly speaking, they could be divided into ordinary Hollows and Menos Grande. Ordinary Hollows, in turn, could be either mindless or intelligent. Most of the Hollows that had appeared on the Plain of Slaughter earlier were the latter.

The higher-level Menos Grande were divided into three ranks according to their strength. The Gillian before them was the lowest rank. But even the lowest-ranked Menos Grande and ordinary Hollows were on completely different levels.

The Gillian before them, for instance, had been born when more than a hundred Hollows devoured one another and merged their spiritual pressure. This wasn't something one saw every day in Soul Society. Tsukikage knew they'd need a lieutenant-level Soul Reaper to lead a squad to deal with the monster—or else more Soul Reapers would have to arrive. The people here stood no chance against it.

Now he understood why Kamisawa had sent out a distress signal. But for Tsukikage, the biggest dilemma was whether or not to save those three.

The Gillian was still some distance away—two or three thousand meters, perhaps?

It looked slow, but with its enormous strides, that distance was no obstacle. They might end up within its attack range before they'd even finished breaking through.

Tsukikage knew all too well that, if that happened, few of those present would survive.

Should he risk it and try, or abandon Kamisawa and the others? Tsukikage was torn.

Tsukikage wasn't the only one who'd noticed the Gillian's arrival. Kamisawa and Yamagata, along with the 4th Division woman behind them, had been dreading its arrival all along. Now their fear had become reality.

I have to survive! That was all Kamisawa could think. So this was what it had come to at last? At the thought, he gave a slight nod, his expression darkening. He really wasn't ready to die!

"Hey, Yamagata. Let's break through in opposite directions." Kamisawa seemed to have made up his mind. His voice held a resolute edge, and his expression turned grim. "Take that woman with you. Trust me, you'll make it!"

Was he trying to split the enemy's forces? Yamagata furrowed his brow. Even if the Hollows in front of them split into two groups, breaking through quickly would be difficult. And he'd have to carry a burden. No matter how he looked at it, it seemed impossible.

"Trust me!"

Kamisawa's voice rang out again. Yamagata gave a wry smile and shook his head. When had this guy ever let him down? They had no other choice, so he'd keep trusting him.

"I'm putting my life in your hands." With that, Yamagata hoisted the burden onto his back and charged, swinging Katsujo. "If you're just talking big, I'll never forgive you!"

"Don't worry, I won't give you the chance!" Kamisawa shouted, swinging his Chain Hammer as he headed in the opposite direction.

Seeing this, the Hollows on the field spontaneously split into two groups and surged after them.

"It looks like they're breaking through in different directions!"

A teammate's shout interrupted Tsukikage's thoughts. Watching what was happening in the distance, he couldn't help feeling frustrated. He'd let the one chance they had to help slip away.

"Use long-range Kido to give them some support," Tsukikage sighed. "We can't just do nothing."

The teammate beside him understood, too. The Gillian in the distance was closing in at an astonishing speed. They had no time to prepare powerful Kido; whatever they could manage would be better than nothing, but it would hardly help.

Even Yamagata, who was in the thick of it, was starting to lose hope—never mind Tsukikage, who had already given up. There were two of them on Yamagata's side, so more Hollows had targeted him. And with a burden on his back, he hadn't even made it thirty meters.

Kamisawa was faring somewhat better on the other side, but not by much. He'd only moved about a hundred meters since the start. The ground beneath their feet was already beginning to tremble. The countdown to their deaths was nearly over.

So this was his limit. Kamisawa watched the pebbles hop across the ground, then swung the iron hammer in his right hand, smashing a Hollow that leaped into the air. He pushed off with his heel, leaping a short distance backward instead of advancing. At the same time, he flung the chain in his left hand backward with all his strength. When he landed again, the chain had wound itself around Yamagata's waist some distance behind him, like a living thing.

Feeling resistance pull at his left hand, Kamisawa stepped forward with his right foot and bent slightly at the waist. He pulled hard, stretching the chain across his chest taut. His right hand drew back to his waist, while his left swung almost halfway around, tossing the chain behind him high into the air. Yamagata and the woman caught in it went flying with it.

It all happened in an instant, though it sounded slow to tell. Yamagata felt himself shooting backward. When he looked down, Kamisawa's familiar smiling face had already blurred.

"So that's what you meant by trusting you!"

His narrow escape didn't make Yamagata happy. On the contrary, he was furious. So this guy had planned to sacrifice himself from the very beginning!

Yamagata instinctively reached for the chain around his waist. He wanted to pull Kamisawa up, too. They were still in danger, but he couldn't just watch Kamisawa stay behind to die!

But he failed. Somehow, the chain around his waist had already returned to Kamisawa's hand. That had been Kamisawa's plan: they had to survive, but he wouldn't be among them. It was the only way anyone could make it out alive. There was no other choice, was there?

"I told you, didn't I? Trust me, and you'll make it!" Kamisawa shouted with a grin. There was no fear or sorrow in his voice, only the hearty teasing of an old friend. "If I ever see you again, you're dead!"

"Bastard!" Yamagata could see his own tears scattering through the air. He must have looked like a complete mess! But he didn't care. "I don't want to see your face again! I'll be just fine!"

Yamagata wanted to rush back and punch Kamisawa, but he knew that would waste the sacrifice his friend had made. His life and the woman's life on his back no longer belonged to just the two of them. They'd been bought with three lives. He had no right to throw them away!

"I can't believe it..." Tsukikage was struck speechless as he watched from afar. He didn't know how to describe what he felt. A hopeless situation had somehow opened up a chance of survival, but it came at such a heavy cost—and with such shame. Compared with Kamisawa, I'm complete garbage, just standing by and watching!

Tsukikage bowed deeply in Kamisawa's direction. When he straightened, he gave an order. "Let's go, too. Those two need—"

A figure appeared and cut him off. Dressed in a Shihakusho from head to toe, the man knelt on one knee, his sleeves fluttering in the wind as he faced Kamisawa's direction.

"Whew. I made it in time."

The figure vanished in an instant, as if he'd never appeared. Only the sound lingering in the air proved he'd been there.

Diezuka Hiroe had arrived on the battlefield!