Baraggan Louisenbairn sat upright on his black throne, his bearing regal, his eyes cold and calm. The sky shook with thunder as the fireworks-like Kidō struck down, roaring against the barrier. Explosions erupted like collapsing heavens, the shockwaves warping Hachigen's cross-shaped enchantment. Sui-Feng and Hachigen widened their eyes, staring into the storm where Baraggan's figure stood.
When the flames finally dispersed, their pupils shrank in disbelief.
Baraggan remained seated, untouched, his form unscathed.
"The old man wondered how terrifying you might be," his voice was slow, laced with disdain. "It turns out… nothing more than this."
The Hanabi Kidō had never even touched him. Long before it reached his flesh, it had been consumed by the gray breath of death that shrouded his body. Fire reduced to rot, flames to dust, and all power became nothing.
Sui-Feng's teeth clenched. Her jaw tightened with fury. "Damn it… this guy…"
Hachigen's eyes flickered, thoughtful, silent. He knew too well—Baraggan's resurrection embodied decay and death. How does one kill death itself? The question spun in his mind, but the answer was already clear. He had studied strange powers all his life, unlike Sui-Feng who pursued only strength in straight lines. His thoughts ran differently—his brain traced circles where hers cut in direct paths. As vice-chief of the Kidō Corps, he saw what she could not.
Without hesitation, Hachigen stepped forward.
"Hey, where are you going?!" Sui-Feng snapped.
"I'm going to gamble." His tone was calm, face set with resolve as he walked toward Baraggan.
Baraggan tilted his head, amusement flickering. What could this fat man do? Yet the firmness in his eyes stirred a sliver of interest. Slowly, the hollow king leaned forward, as though humoring him.
The barrier parted slightly. Hachigen stepped through, approaching the throne with measured pace. In his hand, a small square construct of Kidō glowed faintly blue.
Baraggan laughed aloud when he saw it. "Hah! Are you planning to use that tiny trinket to save your life?!" His laughter rolled like thunder, mocking.
But Hachigen's face was solemn. "Please accept it." He extended the glowing barrier forward.
Baraggan reached out, curious. Yet as the black aura of death touched Hachigen's skin, his fingers began to wither. Flesh corroded instantly, bone exposed. His hand turned skeletal, the rot climbing inexorably up his arm—flesh stripped away, wrist hollowed, forearm pale and brittle.
Still, he did not falter. Not a flinch, not a wince. He endured, and pressed the barrier forward.
Baraggan's smirk deepened, watching this stubborn man force the glowing cube into his chest. Then—his expression changed.
"What—?" His eyes widened. Flesh across his torso began to dissipate into ash. His breath caught. The decay consuming him was his own.
"This…"
"For you," Hachigen said quietly, withdrawing what remained of his skeletal arm.
Baraggan's pupils trembled. He recognized it instantly. The power corroding him was none other than his own—the absolute dominion of death, sealed within Hachigen's barrier and returned to its master. Death devoured death.
Hachigen's gamble had been correct. To bury death, only death itself would suffice.
"I see…" Baraggan whispered. His gaze softened, a trace of understanding in his ancient eyes. Slowly, the crowned king lowered his head in respect to his opponent.
Hachigen bowed in return, sending him off as one monarch to another.
Baraggan's body dissolved, scattering into fragments of bone dust. But in the final moment, he raised his eyes, and far away they found Aizen. His stare filled with unwillingness. A giant battle-axe materialized in his hands; with his last strength, he hurled it toward the traitor. Yet before it could cross the distance, the weapon crumbled into nothing, fading in midair.
"Ugh…" A final sigh, like a whisper carried by desert winds. Then Baraggan Louisenbairn, the King of Hueco Mundo, was gone. His throne stood empty, the black majesty of his existence erased.
The barrier dissolved. Sui-Feng exhaled, a trace of relief passing her cold face. Espada No. 2 was dead. One more of the intruders had fallen. The balance of battle tilted further toward the Gotei 13.
Across the ruined streets, high among shattered towers, Stark felt the moment. Baraggan's reiatsu vanished, and his own eyes dulled.
"What's wrong? Thinking of avenging your partner?" Kyōraku Shunsui asked lightly, twin blades spinning lazily in his hands. Behind him, Ōtoribashi Rōjūrō and Aikawa Love bled heavily, having shielded him from Stark's Cero earlier. Wonderweiss had already vanished into the shadows.
"It suits me fine. I'd like to avenge my partner too—though the old man isn't dead yet." Shunsui's tone was playful, but the sharpness in his gaze betrayed the edge of steel.
But Stark did not answer. His gaze lingered on the figure in the distance—Aizen.
Aizen had not moved. Not a single step, not a single word, as though Baraggan's death was meaningless to him.
Stark's eyes dimmed further. He remembered the Espada gatherings, the laughter of comrades, the desert king who once guarded Hueco Mundo's frontier, the long years of loneliness. He had thought those days were gone, that with Lilynette he was no longer alone. That they were all comrades.
But Aizen had never seen them as partners. It was all a dream.
"Hey, Stark! Don't drift off!" Lilynette's voice rang in his mind, sharp with frustration. "I'm still here, aren't I? You're not alone!"
Stark was silent a long moment. Then, almost inaudibly, he whispered: "…Yeah." His face was blank, without joy or sorrow, but he raised his twin pistols and pointed them forward.
Kyoraku smiled faintly, lifting his swords. "I've been waiting for you. Then let me show you… the power of Katen Kyōkotsu."
They clashed, steel against Ceros, shadows and games of death weaving across the battlefield. Soon, Stark's reiatsu, too, began to fade into the air.
Three Espada had fallen. The others had already been slain earlier. The balance of the war was no longer balanced at all. It leaned fully toward the Shinigami.
All eyes turned skyward, to the lone figure who remained—Aizen.
"You're finished!" Sui-Feng's voice cut coldly through the air. "You have no chance of victory!"
But Aizen gave no answer.
What answered was a cry—long, broken, like the wailing of a newborn.
"Ahhhhhh!!"
The shrill roar of Wonderweiss Margela split the sky.
A shuddering soundwave erupted, forcing everyone to clutch their ears as the ground cracked beneath the blast.
High above, the massive icicle that had entombed Harribel suddenly shattered.
"What… what?!" Sui-Feng's eyes went wide as Tia Harribel, freed from her frozen prison, stepped once more into the storm.
"Wondawise!" Her voice carried, and the childlike Arrancar shrieked again, his name the only word he knew. His cry was a declaration of will, a vow to fight.
The tide of battle, thought settled, now twisted again.
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