"Tch, tch, tch…"
"Captain Aizen… everyone used to joke before: once, in the future, if Kurosaki Ichigo and Inoue Orihime got married, then the kid they'd have…"
"would probably be the Soul King the moment he was born!"
"Now it looks like that joke… actually became reality!!!"
Inside Hueco Mundo's Las Noches,
Ichimaru Gin's eyes widened slightly.
Those azure-blue pupils were clearly filled with surprise.
Yes—
even he hadn't expected it.
At the very end of this "ranking" story,
the final powerhouse to appear…
wasn't some already-known top-tier within the current Bleach world—
but… ten years later, Kurosaki Ichigo's son!
A child the entire world's audience
had never even had the chance to see—
yet who possessed Soul King–level power!!!
A development like this was simply unimaginable!!!
"Gin…"
"Compared to his identity, what I'm more interested in is this: when Kurosaki Ichigo's son faced Yhwach's power…"
"the childish playfulness and game-like attitude he displayed…"
"compared to any Hollowfication experiment we've ever conducted…"
"he is undoubtedly… the single most outstanding 'work' of all!!!"
Aizen's expression
finally stopped being indifferent.
Instead, for the first time in a long while,
he looked genuinely intrigued.
Clearly,
Kurosaki Ichigo's son—Kurosaki Kazui—
had thoroughly captured his interest.
After all, even Kurosaki Ichigo himself
had been a "project" Aizen manipulated behind the scenes from beginning to end,
cultivating and raising him step by step!
Let alone the fact that now—
the ranking video had revealed
that Kurosaki Ichigo even had a son!
To Aizen, this felt like a tangible continuation.
As though everything he had done
had extended onward in a real, living way!
It was practically like the thrill of "raising another account" all over again!
That was why Aizen—
normally unfathomably deep and rarely showing any obvious emotion—
had just now, in a rare moment,
displayed excitement!!!
"So…"
"Lord Aizen, do you think this child can really deal with the Soul King's dark torrent with his bare hands?" Tōsen Kaname's tone was hesitant. He didn't really believe something like that.
What kind of joke was that?!
Everyone had already felt countless times just how terrifyingly strong Yhwach's power was!
And besides—
in the "Kyōka Suigetsu" ranking segment,
when those dark torrents overflowed and fell from above the Soul King Palace,
they had nearly, at one point,
completely destroyed the entire Seireitei!
Even if what remained now was only a fragment—
the power fluctuations those dark torrents gave off
still vastly surpassed captain-class combatants!
Therefore,
under those conditions,
it was hard for Tōsen Kaname to believe
that a brat who hadn't even finished growing his baby hair
could possibly be that insane—
could casually "pinch" the Soul King's dark torrent into submission.
If that were true…
then how were all the powerhouses who had been defeated during the Thousand-Year Blood War—
by Yhwach and the pure-blood Quincy—
supposed to live with themselves?!!!
And around him,
it wasn't only Tōsen Kaname.
All Ten Espada, along with the other Hollows and Arrancar—
everyone's brows were tightly knit,
their eyes locked onto the screen.
There was doubt.
There was expectation.
But even more of it was head-shaking disbelief!
Because if, in a moment—
Kurosaki Ichigo's son really did destroy that mass of dark torrent
with nothing but his bare hands…
then wouldn't that mean…
the little boy's power
was confirmed beyond doubt to surpass the Gotei 13!
Even stronger
than the five members of Squad Zero had been back then!!!
———
After that,
under the curious and speculative gazes
of the world's audience,
the video continued to play—
A hand raised!
Kurosaki Kazui's pale, tender little palm!
In a dynamic close-up shot,
his hand slowly stretched forward.
Right before their eyes,
it was about to make contact
with the physical, tangible dark torrent!
However—
at that moment…
the video cut again,
jumping back to Soul Society—
to the place where Soi Fon, Mayuri Kurotsuchi, and Byakuya Kuchiki were.
At this instant,
the massive dark torrent over there
suddenly erupted—
like a storm, it spread and surged outward in every direction.
Within it,
you could clearly see
those enormous, grotesque Omniscient Eyes—
the same ones that had once appeared on Yhwach's body—
distributed throughout the darkness!
"This is bad…"
"This scene… it's just like back then, during the final battle, when Kurosaki Ichigo used Zangetsu to cut Yhwach for the first time…"
"After that, he recovered his human form in exactly this posture!"
"So this accident… is seriously not some harmless mess!!!"
Inside Squad One,
the captains' faces changed as unpleasant memories surged up.
In an instant, it reawakened
the fear and oppression that the once-invincible Yhwach had brought!!!
And at the head seat—
the Commander-Captain lowered his eyes,
silent.
Those aged, profound eyes
revealed unmistakable worry.
The old man did not want
that annihilating Thousand-Year Blood War
to happen again!
To him, that would be a catastrophe.
And the three people involved—
Soi Fon, Byakuya Kuchiki, and Mayuri Kurotsuchi—
all wore the same grim expression.
Watching with their own eyes
as their ten-years-later selves—
the figures beneath their captain's haori—
were about to be swallowed by the dark torrent…
That feeling—
no one could stay calm through it.
Even Mayuri Kurotsuchi—
arrogant by nature, and supremely confident in his scientific technology—
said nothing.
For once, he showed a rare hesitation unlike his usual self.
But…
in this tense atmosphere,
something completely unexpected happened!
"BANG—!!!"
Without any warning.
With no external interference at all.
In the scene, just as the dark torrent
was about to completely occupy the entire video frame—
suddenly—
after a violent explosion-like sound,
the dark torrent collapsed as a whole,
as if some overwhelmingly powerful force
had torn and shredded it from afar!
Before the audience could even react—
even on-site, Byakuya and the others
wore the same stunned expressions on their faces!
The three stood shoulder to shoulder.
As they froze there,
they hadn't even finished the motion of drawing their Zanpakutō from their hands…
And just like that—
under the shocked and bewildered gazes
of the entire world's audience—
in the end, all of the dark torrent vanished.
Not even the slightest trace remained!!!
After the world's audience
witnessed this entire segment with their own eyes,
the Bleach world
instantly boiled over.
Cries of astonishment and fevered discussion
rang out endlessly across every corner of the world:
"No way! That was so sudden!"
"What happened? That dark torrent was leftover power from Yhwach—Soul King–tier existence!"
"Back then, during the Thousand-Year Blood War, even Kurosaki Ichigo and Aizen paid an enormous price when facing it!"
"It had to be his son, right? He erased it from afar with his bare hands! One slap, and the final removal!"
"As expected! As a little Soul King, Kurosaki Ichigo's son… from the moment he was born, he was destined to be a Soul King too!!!"
At this moment,
the world was shaken!
The audience—everyone—was in an uproar!
Every single person felt it deeply:
just how absurdly monstrous
Kurosaki Kazui's power really was.
No Zanpakutō.
No outside help.
No other complicated processes,
no complex abilities.
Kurosaki Kazui
had only extended his hand.
Toward that mass of darkness,
he simply closed his fingers—
a light, casual squeeze.
And just like that—
the dark "Soul King Yhwach,"
ten years after his death,
the last remaining consciousness and power
he had left behind in the Bleach world…
actually ended up… falling into Ichigo's son's hands!!!
That outcome was beyond anyone's imagination!
And it also completely proclaimed—
that the pure-blood Quincy race
was fated to decline!!!
———
"Damn it…"
"We were this close to making a comeback!"
"But in the end… His Majesty's consciousness still couldn't do it!!!"
At this moment,
inside Silbern—within its crystal palace—
with Haschwalth, Lille Barro, and Askin Nakk Le Vaar at the forefront—
their moods fell straight into the abyss.
The only thought they had left,
in this instant,
was completely shattered.
Now,
whether they accepted it or not—
Yhwach's death
was already a fixed fact in the future!
Not to mention…
besides Kurosaki Ichigo, the protagonist—
now even his son—Kurosaki Kazui—
was a natural-born Soul King!
Two supreme beings in one family!
Father and son alike,
both possessing Soul King–level combat power!
With the two of them around,
any future dark villains
could forget about stirring up trouble in the Bleach world ever again!
And the exposure of this segment
also thoroughly declared
that the Bleach world's story had reached its grand finale.
No suspense remained at all!
A complete happy ending—
a fixed, perfect, peaceful conclusion!!!
"What a shame…"
"At the end of the story, that guy Aizen's fate didn't seem to get shown off specifically…"
"Maybe ten years later, he really did wash his hands of it all?"
Inside the Urahara Shop.
Watching the transparent light screen
gradually dim as the segment ended,
Urahara Kisuke frowned.
A trace of regret flashed in his eyes.
After all…
after watching the entire video,
the publicly recognized strongest people—
the ones standing at the absolute top—
were nothing more than a few:
Kurosaki Ichigo, Yhwach, the "Eye Monk," Aizen, and so on…
And by the end of the story,
the first three were more or less accounted for.
Only Aizen remained!
After the Thousand-Year Blood War ended,
because his prisoner chair had been smashed apart by Yhwach,
Aizen had regained freedom,
no longer bound.
So what happened to him afterward?
Was he captured again?
Or…
did he truly repent,
forgiven by the Shinigami—
and return to the Gotei 13?
Faced with all those possibilities,
Urahara Kisuke felt nothing but curiosity!
In the end, he still believed
that someone with Aizen's scale of ambition—
no one could force him to do something he didn't want to do.
So…
Aizen's final outcome
was genuinely hard to guess.
That was why Urahara Kisuke felt regret.
But…
as for that topic,
the partners beside him weren't very concerned.
Kurosaki Isshin was fully immersed
in the joy of "hugging his grandson from afar"
because Kurosaki Kazui had been revealed.
Yoruichi, as always,
was extremely interested in those on the throne.
As for Tessai Tsukabishi—
he crossed his arms,
rubbing his chin as he seriously pondered a different question.
"Shopkeeper…"
"Do you remember? During the battle, Soul King Yhwach once said—
relying on the power of The Almighty!"
"he could stand at the highest point of the world
and look down upon any linear outcome that might happen!"
"Then… can we assume that besides the Bleach world, there are other dimensional worlds as well?"
When Tessai's question was spoken—
it immediately stunned everyone.
In an instant, it turned the atmosphere in the shop quiet.
"What?!"
"Tessai… you mean… other worlds?"
Under the green brim of his hat,
Urahara Kisuke's pupils suddenly constricted.
His first reaction at that moment
wasn't whether it should or shouldn't be—
but rather…
after being reminded like this,
a subtle intuition surged up,
making him feel this possibility was extremely likely!!!
If, beforehand,
he had never watched the ranking video—
then Urahara Kisuke would have thought such an idea was utterly ridiculous!
Just the Bleach world alone
was already ancient and vast beyond measure.
It was hard to imagine
what other dimensional worlds might be like—
how bizarre they could be,
and what completely different power systems they might possess!
As for all of that—
even as a scientist,
with a mind far beyond ordinary people—
Urahara Kisuke had never deliberately tried to fantasize about it.
But now—
right at this instant—
after Tessai's reminder—
Urahara Kisuke turned his gaze again
to the pitch-black transparent light screen.
For some reason,
staring at that black image,
he felt…
a powerful premonition
surging up in his heart.
It was as if—
there was no need to wait very long.
Soon, the transparent light screen
would light up again.
And the new ranking
would no longer be limited to the Bleach world.
Instead, it would expose
brand-new content from other dimensional worlds—
things that had never once been revealed before!
Thinking that,
Urahara Kisuke's eyes grew hot,
and his heart became more and more eager with anticipation.
And around him, noticing his shifting thoughts and expression,
Yoruichi, Kurosaki Isshin, and the others
also set aside their distractions,
their eyes turning in unison toward the screen!
Sure enough—
not long after—
under everyone's gaze,
the pitch-black image flickered,
and a piercing white light burst forth!
This clearly signaled—
next,
before the eyes of the entire Bleach world's audience,
the ranking of a brand-new dimensional world
was about to begin seamlessly, immediately, right after this!!!
(End of Chapter)
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