"I didn't actually win... If you used Bankai now, I would die here immediately."
Azashiro Kenpachi looked at his predecessor, the invincible Kuruyashiki Kenpachi, his brow slightly furrowed.
"Sorry, Azashiro! I apologize for not letting you see me go all out!"
"But! I absolutely cannot use Bankai here. If I'm the only one who dies, you'll still be here, and the Gotei 13 won't lose anything. But if I use Bankai here, the Gotei 13 will lose three division captains at once! The Captain-Commander would bring me back to life and kill me countless times over..."
Blood still flowed from Kuruyashiki Kenpachi's chest, but he did not care. He cracked a dry joke to lighten the atmosphere.
"..."
"Azashiro! I'm leaving the 11th Division to you, and my lieutenant... Take care of that kid for me too!"
Kuruyashiki Kenpachi fell silent for a moment before continuing.
"Understood..."
Azashiro Kenpachi-no, before Kuruyashiki Kenpachi at this moment, he was merely Sōya Azashiro, who had failed to win. This battle... he did not want to acknowledge it as his victory. As someone burdened with guilt, his only way to become a captain in Soul Society was to win the captaincy of the 11th Division through a challenge. And as luck would have it, the 11th Division had produced Kuruyashiki Kenpachi, a talent seen once in a thousand years!
Looking at Kuruyashiki Kenpachi before him, Sōya Azashiro felt he had been born at the wrong time. Their times should have been staggered, should have been kept apart. Or rather... if Kuruyashiki Kenpachi had been promoted to Squad Zero a few years earlier, the tragedy before him would never have happened.
"Listen, Azashiro. The Kenpachi challenge is sacred. You must do what I failed to do. Never hold back in a Kenpachi challenge!"
Kuruyashiki Kenpachi gently patted Sōya Azashiro's shoulder, then turned and walked toward Shunsui Kyōraku.
"Sorry! I'll have to trouble you to report to the Captain-Commander for me. I... might die before I make it there."
Kuruyashiki Kenpachi gave Shunsui Kyōraku a deeply apologetic smile. He could only leave it to Shunsui Kyōraku and Sister Hana to report the elimination of the Menos Grande to the Captain-Commander. Regrettable though it was, the fact remained that he was about to die.
"Leave it to us!"
Shunsui Kyōraku and Retsu Unohana exchanged a glance and nodded gently, reassuring Kuruyashiki Kenpachi.
"Captain..."
The members of the 11th Division gazed at Kuruyashiki Kenpachi, unwilling to part with him. Their captain was invincible. Why had this happened? They could not understand...
"Hahaha... Smile, all of you! Your new captain is the man who defeated me, which means he's even stronger than I am! What more could you want? Members of the 11th Division shed blood, never tears!"
Even at the very end, Kuruyashiki Kenpachi continued to teach his division members.
"Yes, Captain!"
"We'll see you off with smiles!"
The division member forced his lips into a grin, tears spilling uncontrollably from his eyes and rolling down without stopping.
"Hahahaha..."
Kuruyashiki Kenpachi swept his gaze across the faces of the 11th Division members one by one, as though trying to commit all their faces to memory. Then, laughing loudly, he turned and strode away.
"Captain!"
The members of the 11th Division stood where they were in unspoken agreement, watching their captain leave. Not one of them followed. They knew their captain did not want to die in front of them.
Soon, Kuruyashiki Kenpachi disappeared from their sight. Then his vast, torchlike Spiritual Pressure went out...
The captain of the Gotei 13's combat division, the 11th Division-the seventh Kenpachi, Kuruyashiki Kenpachi-had fallen in a Kenpachi challenge!
The news swept through all of Soul Society like a storm. Even Squad Zero was shaken by it.
Yet what no one noticed was that, in the deserted mountains, the instant Kuruyashiki Kenpachi "died," a strange white substance sprayed from the round hole Sōya Azashiro had opened in his chest, then covered his entire body. Notably, at this moment, Kuruyashiki Kenpachi looked more like a Hollow than a Soul Reaper!
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
"Kill... Szayelaporro!"
The Menos Grande Kuruyashiki Kenpachi had become was confused. He had no idea who he was, nor did he care who he was. But he knew who his enemy was: a pink-haired fucking gay! (Szayelaporro's Hollow Hole was in his crotch. He was a perfect life-form without a little Szayelaporro.)
Riiip~
As the sky tore open, the Menos Grande Kuruyashiki Kenpachi had become leaped straight into the Garganta. Szayelaporro had to die!
Not long after Kuruyashiki Kenpachi left, the Stealth Force's special unit came to collect his body, arriving at the last place Kuruyashiki Kenpachi had stayed while "alive."
"..."
"Report to our superiors that, even in his final moments, the seventh Kenpachi, Kuruyashiki Kenpachi, took a Vasto Lorde-class Menos Grande down with him."
The unit captain, dressed entirely in black, sensed the mingled Spiritual Pressure of a Soul Reaper and a Menos Grande in the air. After a brief silence, he finally spoke to those behind him.
In all honesty, he had never thought much of the brutes of the 11th Division, but Kuruyashiki Kenpachi truly was a hero among heroes!
Hueco Mundo.
"Hahaha... I wonder what that Soul Reaper will become in the end. Will he be assimilated by that Vasto Lorde-class Menos Grande? Or will he defeat the Menos Grande parasitizing his body?"
Szayelaporro sat in his laboratory, laughing loudly. Ever since Baraggan Louisenbairn had gone up into the sky above Hueco Mundo to gaze at the moon, all of Hueco Mundo had been left leaderless. Although he still presided over Baraggan's entire palace, perhaps because of his abilities, he did not inspire the same absolute fear in the Menos Grande that Baraggan had. As a result, he was frequently challenged by those who refused to submit.
And the miraculous liquid he had injected into Kuruyashiki Kenpachi's body had been refined from a newly advanced Vasto Lorde-class Menos Grande who had challenged him for his position. Even now, Szayelaporro found it rather amusing to recall the resentful look in that Vasto Lorde-class Menos Grande's eyes before he had refined him into liquid.
"Roar!!"
Just as Szayelaporro was recalling his memories and savoring that beautiful sight...
A Garganta opened directly into Szayelaporro's laboratory. Then Szayelaporro saw Kuruyashiki Kenpachi, wrapped in a mysterious white substance.
"Huh?!"
Szayelaporro was dumbfounded. He had considered many possibilities, such as the Soul Reaper's power overcoming the Hollow's power, or the Hollow's power overcoming the Soul Reaper's. Either way, the other party would be severely weakened. But he had never imagined that the other party would appear before him as a symbiosis of Soul Reaper and Hollow-and appear right inside his laboratory at that.
"Now I'm in trouble!"
Looking at the thing before him, neither Soul Reaper nor Hollow, which was releasing terrifying Spiritual Pressure, Szayelaporro broke out in beads of sweat. This time, he had screwed himself over. Yes, this thing before him was an accident he, Szayelaporro, had created with his own hands! That was right. Something like this, which exceeded the plan and should never have existed in the first place, could only be called a research accident!
(End of chapter)