A disturbance

"Once it goes in, it won't die."

Rukia continued, "But it will be punished forever."

Hearing this, Yoriichi quietly watched the Hollow.

His calm eyes reflected the hideous outline of the Gates of Hell, as well as the Hollow's contorted, agonized form.

Ichigo couldn't help glancing at him.

He felt that Yoriichi seemed a little different now.

The next moment.

Yoriichi spoke.

"Someone like it doesn't deserve to live."

His tone was very calm.

But the calmer he sounded, the more chilling it was.

Rukia froze for a moment.

She instinctively looked at Yoriichi and was about to say something when she saw him raise his right hand.

He closed his hand around empty air.

Hum.

A narrow-bladed katana instantly appeared in his palm.

The blade was dark gray, with a tiny character for "sun" engraved near the hilt.

Rukia's pupils contracted.

A Zanpakuto?

No, that wasn't right.

How could a human possibly produce a Zanpakuto?

Her mind was in disarray for a moment.

Yoriichi had already gripped the hilt and slowly held the sword horizontally before him.

"Breath of the Sun, burn away all Hollow filth."

"Hekyō."

The instant his words fell.

Boom!

The blade abruptly turned a blazing crimson.

Golden-orange flames flowed along its edge, as though the sun had been forcibly compressed into a sword.

A terrifyingly scorching Reiatsu suddenly erupted.

The entire abandoned factory was illuminated by fire in an instant.

The ground grew hot.

The air warped.

Even the surrounding steel supports gave off a faint hum in the heat.

Ichigo stared, dumbfounded.

"This Reiatsu..."

His throat felt a little dry.

Rukia simply stood rooted to the spot.

This Reiatsu far surpassed that of most Soul Reapers she knew, and even instinctively brought captains to mind.

Reiatsu stronger than even my brother's.

How was that possible?

Why would a high school student in the World of the Living have Reiatsu at this level?

Rukia felt as though her mind was about to stop working.

The Hollow that should have been dragged into Hell seemed to sense mortal danger too, and struggled even more frantically.

But it was already too late.

Yoriichi raised his sword.

With just one swing.

Crimson sword light slashed out in an instant.

Swish!

The hellish chains wrapped around the Hollow were burned through on the spot by that sunlike Reiatsu.

The next moment, the sword light swept through the Hollow's body.

There was no explosion.

Nor did flesh and blood go flying.

The Hollow couldn't even finish screaming before its enormous body rapidly disintegrated in the scorching Reiatsu, turning to ash and vanishing completely.

Rukia said nothing.

She couldn't speak at all right now.

But it wasn't over.

There was a sudden pause before the Gates of Hell.

They clearly hadn't expected the sinner they were taking away to simply disappear.

The next moment.

The demonic faces on the gates abruptly contorted.

Clack, clack, clack.

The chains shook wildly.

Immediately afterward, a mass of chains shot out from within the gates like a raging tide, sweeping toward the entire factory.

Ichigo's expression changed drastically.

"Hey, why's this thing going berserk now?"

Rukia also snapped back to her senses and cried urgently, "Get back!"

Yoriichi took a step forward.

His crimson blade hung slightly lowered.

His breathing suddenly changed.

Steady and long, as though some special rhythm was circulating through his body.

Then.

Yoriichi moved.

"First Form: Dance."

Sword light swept out like a crescent moon.

But it wasn't the moon.

It was the sun.

A crimson arc flashed past, and the oncoming chains all snapped the instant they touched the sword light, their broken ends still bearing molten-red scorch marks.

A dense chorus of shattering sounds rang out in midair.

Fragments of chain clattered all over the ground.

Ichigo watched with his scalp prickling.

This wasn't a battle he could get anywhere near right now.

At that thought, he suddenly began questioning his life a little.

He had just been thinking about protecting everyone.

Yet the moment Yoriichi drew his sword, it felt like he was about to blow the whole place away.

The Gates of Hell seemed thoroughly enraged.

More chains reached out from within.

Layer upon layer, they nearly filled all the space ahead.

Yoriichi's gaze remained calm.

Hekyō trembled slightly in his hand.

"Eleventh Form: Sun Halo Dragon, Head Dance."

Boom!

Crimson Reiatsu instantly coiled around the blade, transforming into a roaring flame dragon.

The flame dragon charged out in the direction of Yoriichi's swing.

Everywhere it passed, chains shattered one after another.

They weren't severed, but burned directly to pieces.

Before the fire dragon, the chains were as fragile as dry grass.

Rukia stared fixedly at the scene, her breath catching for a beat.

Was this really Shikai?

Why was it this powerful?

And his Reiatsu seemed to be extremely effective against Hollows and things with this kind of sinister chill.

This wasn't an ordinary fire-type Zanpakuto.

It was more like...

The sun.

The next moment.

The flame dragon broke through every obstruction and plunged headfirst into the Gates of Hell.

Boom!

A tremendous crash came from within the gates.

The entire factory shook along with it.

The chains that had been flailing wildly suddenly went rigid.

Then, as though given some enormous fright, they all rapidly withdrew.

The hideous Gates of Hell also began closing at an extremely rapid pace.

The demonic faces contorted.

The chains drew back.

At last.

The gates closed completely, slowly sinking into the darkness and disappearing.

The factory fell quiet all at once.

Only lingering waves of heat slowly dissipated through the air.

Hekyō in Yoriichi's hand returned to its original dark gray, then dissolved into Reishi and dispersed from his palm.

Ichigo looked at him, taking a long while to squeeze out a few words.

"You..."

"Just how much more are you hiding?"

Yoriichi turned to glance at him.

"I wasn't hiding anything."

"I just didn't say."

Ichigo: "..."

That somehow made it even more irritating.

Meanwhile.

Rukia was still standing where she had been.

Her mind was now filled with words like Zanpakuto, Shikai, Reiatsu, and Captain-level.

This wasn't right.

This was far too wrong.

This human named Yoriichi Tsugikuni was an outright monster.

And the kind of monster who could shake the Soul Society, at that.

At the same time.

Elsewhere in Karakura Town.

Inside the Kurosaki Clinic, Isshin Kurosaki, who had been about to turn off the lights, suddenly raised his head and looked toward the abandoned factory.

For the first time, his expression turned grave.

"This Reiatsu..."

Not far away.

At the Ishida Family's hospital, Ryūken Ishida stood by his office window, his brows furrowed.

Inside the Urahara Shop.

Kisuke Urahara adjusted the brim of his hat, the paper fan in his hand coming to a stop.

He narrowed his eyes as he looked in the same direction.

"How outrageous."

"To think someone like this was hiding in the World of the Living."

And in the Soul Society.

Inside the Twelfth Division's monitoring room, a shrill alarm suddenly sounded.

"Report! An extremely high Reiatsu response has been detected in the Karakura Town area of the World of the Living!"

"Its intensity is rising rapidly!"

"The target's nature is unknown!"

But before the surveillance personnel could continue tracking it, that Reiatsu suddenly vanished like an ebbing tide.

The readings on the screen fluctuated wildly before finally settling.

Everyone froze.

"It disappeared?"

"How could it happen so fast?"

"Should we report it?"

The surveillance room instantly descended into chaos.

Meanwhile, somewhere no one had noticed.

A figure in a white haori stood quietly up high.

The night wind stirred his hair.

The man adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose, a smile slowly curling his lips.

"Yoriichi Tsugikuni, is it?"

"Making such a commotion is going to cause me quite a bit of trouble."

As he spoke, his tone remained gentle.

Yet hidden within that gentleness was an indescribable danger.

"Still, it isn't time for us to meet yet."

"I hope you can keep surprising me."